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Pass F^t iS 
Book ' ^ 73 



# if "COME TO LOUISIANA." 1% 

ill Mid-Summer Convention It 

|#| ASSEMBLED UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE i" 

. I State Immigration Association of Louisiana m 

*j itl Composed Entirely OF Former Citizens, .^. 

•^ i'J^i ( Over 600 in Number. Every one in the State Invited.) ItI ^% 

O i#t -OF— «f« ES 

W iti 4i ^- 

S |IHi NOAV RESIDENTS OF LOXJISI A.N A. l*i "I 

O I*! |#j » 

M -t5<| 'pjjg first one ever held in the history of the country; a 'd which had for its object i#=; St 

j^i STRlCTLTt AND SOLELY, to obtaiu data and statistics; and a stateniont Irom i^i Qi 

(^ i'r'i these new "Sons ot Louisiana," K'vinK thfir own personal experience Eiftii 

g j-l*! ranging from 6 months to forty years residence, regarding the ^i^\ u 

« I HEALTH and CLIMATE of LOUISIANA,! I 

•P4 =4<s Held AT THE VERT Hottest Season OF THE Year Dui'iNG THE "Dog Davs" IN iAj ^ 

1 ||| NEW ORLEANS, LA., AUGUST m and 8th, 1888, |l ^ 

§* iti At GRXJNE\^^AI.33 HAI.L. Ill §. 

„ 1^1 And Their Invitation to their Former Neighbors* |^i hj 

e ill OIJI3VC.A.TE!. Ill 3. 

W StpI Highest temperature ever recorded at New Orleans 97° »^» i-- 

J* i=^ Lowest " " " " " 150 |15 O 

,2« i'i^ Average summer temperature at New Oilcans 81° i4 * 

gi*i " winter " " " ...560 «#,« ki 

^ **! if? M 

8 ?t| Tenperature record for August 7th and 8th, 18S8, is as follows: =#= 3 

H |a5 7th— 7 A. M. TSO ; 2 P. M. 80= ;' 7 P. M. 79° ; highest 80 05 lowfst 74° tL* CU 
O **» ***'!— " '^^°'' " ^^®' " ^°'' " 80°5 • " 74= iXi jR 

+* ItI R. E. KEBKAM. U. S. Signal Corps Director, La. Weather Service. =?= 

e if? • «$» S> 

.2 III 11E.A.XJT13:. ijl § 

^ ii^i Folloiving facts n<t shown by the U. S. Census Beport are estahlishrd f^| () 
4j i#= tt>i//i certanity regarding LOUISIANA, ?4? S! 

•S i#? •A? *^ 

^ i#r 1st— That her percentage of deaths of old people places her second amongst r^ = 

Si i#? all the Statts of the Union, for possibilities of long life, Vermont being first ?^? fA 

'"' 'xi 2d— That her position in reference to lowest rate of deaths from consumption, jji O 

^m^ |Tj a disease very dependent upon climatic conditions, is filth. ;TS 

2 i4«? 3d— That her percentage of deaths of children places her above any of the 1*1 

f«« 14;? Southern States,, and, if like population be compared with like, her position will be ?2tr? 

I, i*? third or fourth among all the United States. 'JLI 

S iJL? 'Xs 

mt iJi 4th— That she enjoys relatively to her neighbors, a favorable position in regard iti 

O jXi to mortality from malarial levers, being superior to Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi 1X1 

rTj and Florida, and only a small fraction inferior to Texas. |^j 

ill 0. P. WILKINSON, M. D. President La. State Board of Health, fl'i 

For Information, correspond with or apply to STATE IMMIGRATION ASSOCIATION. 

159 Common Street, New Orleans, La. 
GEO. MOORMAN, Pres. H. H. BAKER, Secfy. ISIDORE NEWMAN, 8r. Treas. •^* 

\ l|l "The Garden Spot of America." iti ,# 



The convention will assemble at Grunewald Hall, Tuesday, August 7th, 11 A. M.,. 

will be called to order by Col. Geo. Moorman, President State Immigration Association 

of La., who will place one of the members of the convention, a new settler, in charge of 

it as tem- porary chairman. 

The officers oj the State Association will then retire, leaving the convention of new 

settlers, entirely free to elect its own permanent officers, president, secretary, sergeant- 

at-arms, etc., the convention thereafter to be entirely controlled and carried on by these 

former residents of northern, western and middle, states. 

Election of Permanent Officers. 

OPENING PRAYER, by Rev. E. P. Crane of Welsh, La. formerly of Emmettsburg, 
Iowa. 

ADDRESS OF WELCOME, by Chief Justice E. Bermudez, of New Orleans, on the part 
of the Judiciarv of Louisiana. 

ADDRESSOF WELCOME, by Col. Jos. A. Breaux, of New Il)eria, La. State Supt. of Ed- 
ucation, representing the Educational Interest of Louisiana. 

ADDRESS OF WELCOME, by Rev. Dr. B. M. Palmer, of New Orleans, La., Subject, 
Churches and Religion in Louisiana. 

A POEM OF WELCOME, from the pen of Mary Ashley Townsend, of Louisiana, to 
be read bv W. R. Lyman, of New Orleans. 

ADDRESS OF WELCOME, on the part of the City of New Orleans, by his Hon. Jos. 
A. Shakspeare, Mayor of the City. 

ADDRESS, by Dr. C. P. Wilkinson, Presdt. Board of Health of Louisiana, giving data 
and health statistics, regarding Louisiana. 

ADDRESS, by Capt. R. E. Kerkam, U. S. Signal Corps Director giring data and 
statistics regarding climate of Louisiana. 

POEM OF WELCOME, by 'Pearl Rivers' of Louisiana, to be read by Hon.- E* Howard 
McCaleb of New Orleans. 

ADDRESSES, for the State at large, by Prof. S. A. Knapp, of Lake Charles, La., 
formerly of Ames, Story Co., Iowa, and Prof S. Decatur Lucas, of Delhi, La., form- 
erly of Afton, Iowa. 

ADDRESS, for Terrebonne Parish and vicinity, by Hon, Robt. MuUenger, of Houma, 
La., formerly from Springfield, Dakota. 

ADDRESS, for East Baton Rouge and Vicinity, by Rev. R. F. Patjterson, of Baton 
Rouge, formerly of Charleston, Illinois. 

ADDRESS, for Caddo Parish anc vicinity, by Dr. J. D. Graybill, of Shreveport, form- 
erly of Ohio. 

ADDRESS, for Iberia Parish and vicinity, by Maj. Rich'd A Pomeroy, of New Iberia, 
formerly of Georgetown, Colorado. 

ADDRESS, for Acadia Parish and vicinity, by Hon. A. R. Burkdoll, of Crowley, form- 
erly of Edgerton, Minnesota. 

ADDRESS, for Tangipahoa Parish and vicinity, by Rev. W. C. Barnes, of Hammond, 
formerly of Kentucky. 

ADDRESS, for Richland Parish and vicinity, by Capt. P. Butler, of Charley ville, form- 
erly of Saratoga, Co. New York. 

ADDRESS, for Jeanerette Colony, by Maj. F. M. Welch of Jeanerette, formerly of St' 
Paul, Minn. 

ADDRESS, for St. Bernard Parish and Vicinity, by Mr. Robert Ridgway, of New Or- 
leans, formerly of Marion, Ind. 

ADDRESS, for Vermilion Parish and vicinity, by Hon. E. Bourne, of Abbeville, form- 
erly of Cooperstown, New York. 

ADDRESS, for Iberville Parish and vicinity, by Dr. Jno. W. Austin, of Plaquemine, 
formerly of Poultney, Vermont. 

ADDRESS, for East Carroll Parish and vicinity, by Hon. J. E. Ransdell, of Lake Prov- 
idence, representing Mr. D. L. Morgan, formerly of Wales Great Britain. 

ADDRESS, for Plaquemines Parish and vicinity, by Hon. John Dymond,of New Or- 
leans formcrlv of New York. 

ADDRESS, for East Feliciana Parish and vicinity, by Maj. D. J. Wedge, of Clinton, 
formerly of Denmark, New York. 

ADDRESS, fo'r Natchitoches Parish and vicinity, by Hon. Will. H. Tunnard, of Natchi- 
toches, La., formerly of New Jersey, in place of W. J. Arnett, of Michigan. 

ADDRESS, for Bossier Parish and vicinity, by Hon. J. H. Keyser, of Bellevue, formerly 
of Pennsylvania. 

ADDRESS, for" St. Tammany Parish and vicinity, by Mr. G. W. Mason, of Covington, 
La., formerly of Oregon, Illinois. 

ADDRESS, for St. Landry Parish, and vicinity, by Hon. A. Dimmick, ofOpelousas, 
formerly of Onawa, Iowa. 

ADDRESS, for the Roscland Colony neft-r Amite City and vicinity, by Mr. James M. 
Wilson, of the Farm Field and Stockman, o( Chicago. 

ADDRESS, for Jennings Colony and vicinity, by Col. S. L. Gary, of Jennings, La., 
formerly of Manchester, Iowa. 

MUSIC AFTER EACH ADDRESS BY THE CONTINENTAL GUARDS BAND. 



I=l.ES0I-.XJ'n01STS 

Adopted by the New Comers at the New Orleans Midsiuunier Con- 
vention held on August 7th and 8th, 1888. 



The following are part of tlie resolutions drawn up and adopted by the 
former Northern, Western and Middle States citizens, now residents of this 
State in their meeting at New Orleans, and will indicate to our friends in 
the north and west the real facts in regard to many important" matters here. 
The comniitteo appointed on resolutions after carefully taking in the whole 
situation reported as follows: 

The resolutions were adopted, the entire convention standing, and not a 
dissenting voice. 

Resolved, That this Immigration Convention, composed of those who have come 
here from other States and have found here a hearty welcome among a hospitable peo- 
ple, desire to express to the citizens of other States the great advantages to be enjoyed 
here, and to render this testimony to the marvelous advantages here enjoyed in climate, 
health, fertility of the soil, its cheapness, and the vast opportunities for the requisites 
of a competence, which we believe are better than now offered in any other State in the 
Union. 

Resolved, That the thanks of this convention be tendorod to the officers and mem- 
bers of the State Immigration Association foa thus In-inging together from all parts of 
the State these newly adopted citizens, thus giving them an opportunity to express their 
views conceruing the fertility of the soil, the healthfulness of the climate and the hosj)!- 
tality of the people. 

Resolved, That the exprience of the members of this convention in the interests of 
labor assures us that the dignity of labor is respected as highly in Louisiana, as in any 
other State, and that honorable toil is no bar to preferment in any direction, but rather 
is an aid thereto. 

Resolved, That we appreciate the efforts of the educational officers of the State, 
and urge them to elaborate and extend their work, and we ask the mass of the people to 
give a more hearty co-operation in building up and maintaining the public school system 
of the State. 

Resolved, That there is an urgent necessity for a thorough and practical geological 
survey of this State that will tend to the development of its vast natural resources, and that 
we earnestly urge upon our Senators and Representatives in Congress that thev induce 
the general government to make this survey. 

Resolved, That the rich alluvial portions of Louisiana are now so carefully guarded 
by the admirable levee system of the State that they offer wonderful opportunities to 
immigrants and afford thorough protection. 

Resolvted, That this convention recommends to the earnest consideration of the 
people of the whole State the coming State fair at Baton liouge, which promises to lie 
one of the most effective aids to Immigration and to the industrial development of the 
State that has ever liefore been undertaken. 

Resolved, That this convention deems the signal service to be an important, factor in 
the development of this State, and while thanking the officers in charge for the clHcient 
manner in which they are conducting the service with the limited means under their 
control, would earnestly rciiucst the enlargement of the service to more complete pro- 
portions, and that copies of this resolution be forwarded to our Senators and Bepre- 
sentatives in Congress. 

Resolved, That the thanks of this convention be tendered to the Chamber of Com- 
merce and to the various exchanges for their kind tende^ of the /reedom of their .floors 
to the memliers of the convention. 

Resolved, That the thanks of this convention be tendered to the public press of this 
city and of the country for their valuable aid to the objects of this convention. 

Resolved, That the thanks of this convention l)e tendered to the hotels of this city 
and to the people of the city for their gcnerons hospitality. 

Resolved, That the tlianks of the convention l)e tendered to the railway and stcam- 
l)oat companies for their generous reduction in the rate of fare from all parts of the 
State to the members of this convention. 

Resolved, That the thanks of the convention be tendered to the presiding officers 
of this convention and to the secretaries and other officers, who have so efficiently per- 
formed their duties. 

Resolved, That the thanks of this convention be tendered to Mr, R, Maitrc for the 
handsome floral display he has made for our pleasure. 

For information, correspond with or apply to State Immigration Asso- 
ciation, 159 Cbmmmon Street, New Orleans, La. 

GEO. MOORMAN, Pkesijjent. H. H. BAKER, Seciustarv. 

ISIDORE NEWMAN Sr., Treasurer. 



B 

Some of the Reasons for Calling* the Mid- 
summer Convention of Northern, West- 
ern and Middle States Settlers. 



The officers entrusted with the management of the State Immigra- 
tion Association of Louisiana,^ discovered some time since that parties 
from Northern and Western States arriving here, were wholly ignorant 
of and greatly prejudiced against Louisiana, on account of reports that 
they had heard, and impressions they had formed regarding the health 
and climate of this State. 

One northern gentleman of high standing, we believe he was the Iowa 
commissioner at the "World's Exposition, published a statement (either 
from malice or through ignorance) in the North which was widely read and 
believed " that the thermometer in June, 1885, stood at 128 degrees in the 
shade, with the best instruments known to the world, that it was impos- 
sible for man or beast to work, that mules dropped dead on the streets of 
New Orleans from heat, as an every day occurrence, and that clover 
could not be grown in Louisiana, as it would be burned up by excessive 
heat" 

Following are some of the extracts from his letters published in the 
Manchester, Iowa Democrat, March 2, 1887. 

After May Ist, New Orleans and all the Southern cities are as de 
serted as a graveyard. 

:)(:): *4c He He He * Hn He 

I will promise him that if he will stay until June, he will see more 
days in that month over 100 degrees than he will under. 

In Juric, 1885, by the very best instruments known to science and 
those in cLarge of the United States government employees, on the 7th 
day of said month, the thermometer registered 128 degrees in the shade, 
and for six s iccessive days it registered above 100 every day. And I 
will just say in connection with this, that it is the most exhausting and 
oppressive L rat I ever endured- The heat in that moist atmosphere is 
just as correspondingly oppressive in summer as it is cold and penetrat- 
ing in winter. * * * * * * ic 

April 13th, 1887. 
********** 

It is also a fact that thousands know who stay in New Orleans in 
summer, or those in charge of State exhibits there, that it was an eveiy 
day occurrence, to see the mules on the Prytania street car line fall, 
ov'elr'come by the heat, when they would be unhitched, rolfed out of the 



c 

way, and another mule hitched in its place. * * * * Another 
feature of New Orleans is that you will never see a resident of that place 
go out in the sun at mid-day without an umbrella. He would as soon go 
without his hat as his umbrella, and it is just as much a part of a man's 
wardrobe as his boots are. He carries it j'^early — to keep off the rain in 
winter and the sun in summer. * * * * Why is it that clover, and 
all the cultivated grasses which we grow so luxuriantly in Iowa will not 
grow there? ***** L. G. CLUTE. 

For further confirmation regarding above slanders see speech of Col. 
S. L. Gary, of Manchester, Iowa, page 70 (and for complete refutation see 
official statement signed by R. E. Kerkam, U. S. Signal Corps Directox*, 
as follows; 

1885. Max. Min. Mean 



June 7 


90 


78 83 


and for six 


successive days. 


June 8 


86 


77 79 


y 


85 


75 79 


10 


87 


75 81 


11 


88 


78 82 


12 


88 


77 83 


13 


92 


78 85 



also his official statement on 1st page cover, and the resolutions and all 
the addresses by these former Northern citizens.) 

Strangers arriving at the Immigration office in the early summer, 
while complimentary to the then existing condition of the weather, would 
say that they "guessed" they had better get away before the torrid spell 
they had heard about set in, and could hardly be persuaded that the car- 
pet of green and exuberance of foliage, would continue almost perennially. 

Others, while feeling a relief to find New Orleans and Louisiana so 
healthy at the moment, could not be persuaded to stay for fear that sick- 
ness and pestilence would creep upon them unawares. 

Some of them stated that they had heard that Louisiana was a vast 
Malaria breeding district, and disease became so rampant, that it ex- 
ceeded all bounds," and became so rapid in its ravages, that bodies were 
left unburied in the sun, making it a vast charnel-house; and as a residence 
only fit for the acclimated salamanders of the Torrid Zone . (For com- 
plete refutation see resolutions of Convention on page A, and all the spee- 
ches made herein by Northern and Western men, who have resided in 
Louisiana from six months to forty years, and also statement of Dr. C. P. 
Wilkinson, President Board of Health, on 1st page of cover.) 

The most effectual Avay to counter-act these vile and mischievous re- 
ports, and to set the matter regarding the health and climate of Louisi- 
ana at rest forever, was considered to be in the assembling of the former 
residents of Northei-n, Western and Middle States-, now citizens of Louis- 
iana, at some central point in mid-summer, during the "Dog Days" at 
the very hottest season of the year, to give their own personal experiences, 
touching the questions at issue. 

New Orleans was selected, as it was believed that the mere fact of 
the presence of these new settlers in the metropolis of the South on the 
7th and 8th of August, would disprove these atrocious calumnies more 
succesafully than any other means which we could adopt 



ADDRESSES, PROGRAMME AND PARTIAL 
PROCEEDINGS OF 

Mid-Summer Convention 



Held at New Orleans, August 7th and 8th, 1888 

rp:lating solely to 

Ilealtli and Climate, Products and Resources 

of Louisiana. 



The 7tli. and Sth. of August, 1888, will be memorable in the annals of 
Louisiana. On those days there was assembled the first Convention of 
Northern, Western and Middle States men ever held in the South in mid- 
summer, thereby marking a new era in the Health and Climate records of 
Louisiana, and making a grand step forward in the history of our progress 
and development. When pamphlets are distributed throughout the north 
filled with the testimony of northerners about Louisianas climate, health, 
people and soil, immediate results may be expected. The immigration now 
apparent in the daily arrivals will be announced by the whistling of siDecial 
trains, and the unused lands of the state will be filled with northern tillers 
of the soil. 

Delegates, all former citizens of Northern, Western and Middle States, 
commenced assembling on Tuesday August 7th, at Grunewald Hall, as early 
as 10 o'clock, and by II o'clock, over 500 had gathered in the large and 
tastefully decorated building. A great many citizens from the parishes, 
and large number of ladies and gentlemen from the city were also in atten- 
dance, as spectators. 

GRUNEWALD HALL 

had been appropriately decorated for the convention of Northern, Middle 
and Western States men. The staircase was on either side lined with living 
plants, the gratuitous work of R. Maitre, the florist. The body of the hall 
presented an imposing appearance. The seats were filled, every one of 
them. The gallery above was the lodgment place of coats-of-arms of each 
of the Northern and Western States represented. Over these triumphantly 
draped were national flags in couples, each joined by the shield of Louisi- 
ana. Elsewhere in the hall, in every available space, was placed the triple 
colors of the national emblem, and flags served as curtains and shades for 
every door and window, making an extremely animated scene. 



Over the stage hung an extra large flag inscribed with the word 

"WELCOME," 

and having pendant from it the Pelican shield. Under this were the seats 
of the presiding officer and distinguished guests. Here, also, were green 
plants, eye-pleasing banana trees, sheaves of cereals and other products, 
showing the varied resources of liouisiana's soil. 

Many of the delegates had also brought with them for exhibition sam- 
ples of corn, rice, pears, okra, cotton, apples and products of all kinds, to 
show the capabilities of the soil. U. S. signal corps Director R. E. Kerkam 
had prepared expressly and had on the stage a large weather map to show 
the excellence of our climate over other sections of the country; strains of 
music from the band, the waving of the tropical plants in the delightful 
breezes from the Gulf of Mexico, the gay decorations, the presenc;e of the 
high dignitaries of Louisiana to greet her "New Sons" and the presence of 
hundreds of Louisiana's daughters all made a never to be forgotten scene. 

At a quarter of 12, Colonel George Moorman, president, and Major H. 
H. Baker, secretary of the Louisiana State Immigration Association, ascen- 
ded the stage, and, after an air by the Continental Guards' Band, the former 
called the convention to order. 

COLONEL GEORGE UOORMAN, 

rapping to order with the gavel, spoke as follows : 

" Ladies and Gentlemen and Members of the Convention — Having been 
placed at the head of the State Immigration Association of Louisiana 
through the partiahty of my fellow-citizens, and as this convention is to be 
held under its auspices, it devolves upon me to call this meeting to order. 

In the performance of this pleasant duty it is my purpose to state, in 
the fewest words possible, the objects for which you are called together and 
to explain to you the arrangements made for your comfort and enter- 
tainment while here, and place one of your members in charge as temporary 
chairman. After which I propose to retire, and we will leave the convention in 
your hands for you to elect your own officers and manage and control it 
through your own members, without any interference or suggestion on the 
part of the State Immigration Association. 

The preliminaries and programme were simply arranged by us, as you 
were so widely scattered it was impossible on your part to do it, and we 
have merely done this as you would not have had time to bring order out 
of chaos after your arrival here. 

From experience we have found that our greatest difficulty in inducing 
immigration here is to 

COMBAT THE BBKONEOUS IMPBESSIONS EXISTING 

regarding the health and climate of Louisiana. 

We beUeve that the resolutions passed by you, and the speeches of 
your orators, in fact your very presence here to-day, will successfully and 
effectually settle this matter, and will speak more eloquently and potently 
than anything else we could do. 

These are the real and only reasons for assembling you here to-day. 

The idea originated entirely with us, and is meant for no other purpose 
than to offer you an opportunity to meet together and give your personal 
experience regarding the health and climate of our state, to be put in pam- 
phlet form and sent back to your frieftds in the North and West as messagei 



4 

from you. At the same time we have thought it proper to make this con- 
vention serve the purpose of an introduction and a welcome. It will be a 
revelation to our own people in Louisiana to know that there are so many 
of you here in our state. 

We want you here and we want you to know it; and we think it is due 
to you gentlemen who have left the grand column which has heretofore been 
moving majestically across the continent, 

FOLLOWING THE STAR OF EMPIRE 

in its westward course, that you have abandoned this trail leading in the 
(livection of the setting sun, not as deserters, nor as stragglers, but under 
full authority from that great army, and that you have selected under the 
sign of the southern cross, in the Pelican state, a new encampment for this 
mighty host; that you should be received with all the diguity and honor 
which your preference for Louisiana merits. (Great Applause.) 

For this reason we have arranged for you a series of welcome. Know- 
ing your predilection for law and order and justice, and your zeal in the 
mattei' of education and religion,our great Chief- Justice, Edward Bermudez, 
learned in the law and stainless in his private life, will welcome you on 
behalf of the judiciary; our state superintendent of education, Colonel 
Joseph A. Breaux, one of our most distinguished citizens and devoted to the 
interest of his charge, will welcome you on the part of the educational inter- 
est of the State; and the Rev. Dr. B. M. Palmer, one of our most eminent 
divines, known and loved all over this broad land, will welcome you on the 
part of our churches and religion; and our honored mayor, Joseph A. 
iShakspeare, has left his official duties and business cares to welcome you on 
the part of this city. 

There are also two othere who have 

PREPARED WELCOMES FOR YOU 

who have never failed Louisiana in any emergency, whether in sunshine or 
in storm; men sometimes prove recreant to the call of patriotism and duty; 
they have never failed; men sometimes make mistakes, they never do; one 
of them sings Louisiana's welcome, with melody as pleasing as the sound o^ 
lutes, and in as sweet and thrilling tones as the lovely songsters which hide 
and nestle in the flower-embowered forests of her native State; the other 
has touched the harp of poesy, and its chords responsive to her call have 
given back music which is in perfect harmony with the purposes of this 
convention, and will float grandly on down through time, forever entwined 
with the history of our State. Need I call the names of "Pearl Rivers" and 
Mary Ashley Towusend? (Prolonged Applause.) 

Also addresses of welcome, one, an account of data and statistics of 
health will be made by Dr. C. P. Wilkin.son, our able president of the Board 
of lieallh, and an account of our climate by Captain R. E. Kerkam, the effi- 
pient and experienced United States Signal Corps director, after which joiit 
own speakers will tell their personal experiences since sojourning in this 
land of the sun. 

In accordance with the programme arranged and as previously announc- 
ed, I now have the honor to call to the chair as temporary presiding officer, 

Pkof. S. Decatur Lucas, 

formerly from Afton in the state of Iowa, now residing at Delhi, in Richland 
Parish, having resided in this state only about one year. He comes accredited 
trom his native etute as a ^ntleman of the highest character and of fine abilii 



ty, and lie Las pioveu, during his residence in this state, that he fully merits 
the high eucomiums given him by his former fellow-citizens of Iowa." 

Col. W. R. Lyman moved the appointment of a committee of three to 
escort Prof. Lucas to the chair. 

The motion prevailed and a committee of three composed of Prof. S. A. 
Knapp, of Lake Charles, Maj. Richard A. Pomeroy, of Iberia and Dr. S. D. Car- 
penter, of Plaquemine, were appointed to escort Prof. Lucas to the platform. 
This distinguished citizen came to Louisiana from Afton, Union County, Iowa, 
just one year ago. He was superintendent of Public Schools in Iowa, and 
is at present Principal of the Delhi Academy in Richland Parish of this State. 

As Prof. Lucas took the chair, Col. Geo. Moorman, President State Immi- 
gration Association of Louisiana, retired from the stage, leaving the convention 
free to organize and elect officers from its own members. 

Prof. Lucas on taking the chair, said: 

"It is truly a surprise to me to be appointed to this place to-day, and I 
beg to say I greatly ajipreciate the honor. I am from the State of Iowa, and 
I feel proud that I am called upon to preside over a convention of my fellow- 
citizens in this my adopted State, particularly so, as I have only resided in 
the State of Louisiana about one year. We will now proceed to business." 

NOMINATIONS WERE DECLARED IN ORDER 

for the election of temporary secretary. Prof. A. Thompson, (Iowa,) of Lake 
Charles, and Mr. T. A. Clayton, (Kansas,) of St. Landry, were nominated, 
and Prof. Thompson was elected on the withdrawal of Mr. Clayton's name. 

Mr. Clayton was made Assistant Secretary. 

It was moved that a committe of nine be appointed on rules and order 

Prof. S. A. Knapp, of Calcasieu, thought that a committee of one from, 
each congressional district should be appointed on simple organization, as 
this would expedite matters. 

Captain P. Butler, of Richland parish, said the convention was not so 
much to expedite matters as to do good, and the committee should consist 
of one from each parish where a northern gentleman lives. He made an 
amendment to that effect, which was lost The motion that 

ONE MEMBER FROM EACH OONQRESSIONAL DISTRICT, BB APPOINTED, 

was then put and carried, and the chair named the following: 

Robert Ridgway, (Indiana,) First congressional district; Robert Mullen- 
ger, Dakota, Second; Dr. S. D. Carpenter, Iowa, Third; C. S. Steele, Fourth; 
H. S. Wardwell, Fifth; Rev. R. F. Patterson, Illinois, Sixth. The com- 
mittee retired for deliberation. 

It was moved that a similar committee be appointed on permanent 
organization. 

There was objection to this, and no action on it was taken. 

A motion was made that a recess of thirty minutes be taken to give 
time for the committee to report, and also for those present to get acquainted. 

Major D. J. Wedge, of Clinton, moved that as all the speakers were pre- 
sent they would no longer delay the programme, and that Chief Justice 
Edwar i Bermudez make his address of welcome. Motion was carried. 
On mo ion by Capt. P. Butler, of Richland, a committee consisting ol 
MesjsiB. D. J. Wedge, V. M. Purdy and Hon. Jno. M. Howell were appointed 



6 

to escort to the stage Chief Justice Bermudez, of the State Supreme Court, 
who was to deliver the first address of welcome. The committee retired to 
receive the Chief Justice. 

It was moved and carried that all the speakers take places on the stage. 

THE OPENING PRAYER 

was then delivered by Eev. E. P. Crane, of Welsh, La., formerly of Emmets- 
burg, Iowa, who spoke as follows: 

"Oh, Thou whose hand hast been manifest in all our history, we are glad 
to acknowledge Thee. For Thou did'st lay the foundations of this govern- 
ment, giving us an existence as a nation and as commonwealths. Thou 
did'st guid6 our fathers in their first imperilments and amid all the stormy 
period when the patriots of our South- Atlantic seaboard joined hands with 
those of the North in the common cause of home and country. Thou too 
in Thy wise providence hast established our unity and our liberties. And 
now we come together, representative men and women of Louisiana, and re- 
presentative men and women of the North and West who have come to abide 
among this people and to share with them the goodliness of their land. W^e 
invoke Thy blessing upon this Convention; upon its projectors, its promoters, 
and upon all who here represent the immigration of our Northern people. 
May wisdom and harmony and a fraternal spirit as also the spirit of candor 
and of fidelity to all the facts and interests involved, mark our deliberations; 
and may the results at which we arrive tend to open this sunny land to the 
intelligent inspection of our Northern people. We recognize the fact that 
the mighty stream of immigration which, from the shores of other continents, 
has so long been pouring into our Northern and Western borders, is being 
paralleled by another largely of our own people, who are turning their faces to 
these softer climes. May they come and nestle down by these beautiful 
rivers whose white wings carry the commerce of other shores, or build them- 
selves, from the waiting forests, homes on the green prairie, fanned by 
the kindly breezes of those waters which Thou boldest in thee hollow of Thy 
hand. And as they come, not only to Louisiana, but to all the South as well, 
may they bring with them not alone of their material wealth, with which to 
develop the resources of soil and climate, but also those sterling principles 
and qualities of character that have lent their aid in making us a great 
nation. Help those who thus come to plant the seeds of peace and of a 
common prosperity, alike in moral and material things. And may these 
beautiful lands, that felt, scarcely a generation ago, the tramp of armed hosts, 
and drank the blood of contending brothers, wave henceforth with the 
whitening harvests of human industry, and offer the shelter of the vine and 
the fig tree as a common pledge of fraternal fellowship. 

Nor would we be unmindful, oh Lord, to thank Thee for the open 
hospitality, the uniform kindliness with which the people of this South- 
land have received us. May we in return say as did one of old: "This people 
shall be npy people, and their God, my God." And while we thus dwell 
together in harmony and toil for the common weal, let us who have come 
among them be ever loyal to those institutions, and to those principles of 
moral and social reform, with which heretofore we have been more or less 
identified. Grant, we pray Thee, the speedy coming of that glad day when 
we shall, in fact as in sentiment, be one people both South and North, in all 
that goes to exalt and ennoble a nation. We ask in His name who gave 
lumself for us. Amen." < 



The committee on rules and permanent organization, reported as follows: 
" 1. That Jefferson's " Manual of Rules " be accepted as the rules to 
govern this convention in the transaction of its business. 

" 2. Your committee recommend further that the permanent organiza- 
tion of the convention shall be made by the selection of a president, and one 
vice-president from each congressional district ; of a secretary and two 
assistant-secretaries, a sergeant-at-arms and as many assistants as the ser- 
geant-at-arms may choose to appoint." 

The report was adopted and 

Pkof. S. a. Knapp, 

of Lake Charles, was unanimously elected permanent president. 

This distinguished gentleman is a native of New York, where he resided 
over 30 years, and is a graduate of Union University, New York, and came to 
Louisiana from Ames, Story County, Iowa, in the winter of 1884. He was 
Professor of Agriculture in the Iowa Agricultm-al College, and afterwards its 
President. 

He came south on a lecturing tour, and delivered a course before the 
Mississippi Agricultural College. His degree of L.L.D. was conferred by the 
upper Iowa University, in 1880, for services in the cause of education. 

In accepting the trust he said : 

"Ladies and Gentlemen of the Convention — It is not necessary to detain 
you a moment tc> make remarks on this occasion, except to say we have a 
great many things to do, which for the honor of the states from which we 
came, and for the honor of the state we now live in, will, I trust, be done 
promptly and wisely. I have the honor to say that the convention is now 
called to order." 

Nominations and elections for vice presidents were made as follows: 

Robert Ridgway, (Indiana), First Congressional district. 
Robert Mullenger, (Dakota,) Second district. 
Wm. H. Haskell. (Massachussetts. ) Third district. 
Dr. J. D. Graybill, (Ohio,) Fourth district. 
Edw. H. Davis, (North Carolina,) Fifth district. 
B. F. Morris, (New York,) Sixth district. 

The temporary secretary and temporary assistant secretary were made 
permanent officers and Mr, James W. Wilson, of the Faini, Field and 
Stockman, formerly of Chicago, was elected the other assistant. 

Major H. H. Bakek 

was by motion unaraimously elected an honorary secretary of the convention. 
Mr. Chas. S. Johnson, (Illinois,) of Hammond, was elected sergeant-at- 
arms. 

Colonel, Geo. Moorman 

was by special motion elected by acclamation honorary vice president amidst 
.loud applause. 

The vice presidents took their seats on the platform. 
A Message from Governor Nicholas 
was announced, saying that it was impossible for him to attend. 



It was suggested that the secretary be requested to make a complete 
roll of the delegates to the covention. 

On motion of Major Richard A. Pomeroy the convention requested that 
all northern or other immigrants register at 159 Common street, that the 
rolls of the convention might be made with less trouble. 

Prof. Knapp, as chairman of the convention, rose and introduced Chief- 
Justice Edward Bermudez, in the following words : 

" Ladies and Gentlemen of the Convention — I have the pleasure to intro- 
duce to you, for an address of welcome, Chief-Justice Edward Bermudez, to 
represent the judiciary of Louisiana." 

Address of Welcome by Chief Justice Edward Bermudez. 

" Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Convention — The chairman has 
announced me as a representative of the Judiciary, on this occasion. This 
is a slight mistake, I appear in no official capacity whatsoever. I come as 
a private individual to make a few remarks on this occasion; and I do it aa 
the equal of every one here, the superior of none (applause). I come simply 
as a citizen of Louisiana who has at stake the good of his state, and will not 
detain you long. The address I have prepared for you, I have made read as 
a judgment. 

The promotei's of this convention have met for the purpose of taking 
such steps as may effectually stimulate immigration, specially from the west 
and north. They are men of broad minds, of stout hearts, of practical busi- 
ness capacity, who, made aware of the advantages to be derived in agricultural 
pursuits in this state, came to judge for themselves of her climate and 
salubrity and the fertility of her soil. After an experimentation of a number 
of years they have announced themselves amply satisfied and rewarded and 
have settled permanently within her borders. 

Tras IS NO Political Assemblage. 

Men generally congregate to avert a common danger or t« promote a 
common good. Seldom do they meet to accomplish a purpose which, when 
realized, inures exclusively to the benefit of others. Still such seems to be 
the main object of those who have come together on this occasion. 

They have assembled to bear testimony to established facts which will 
induce others to follow in their footsteps, that they may reap advantages 
similar to those which they have themselves realized. 

They will announce in appropriate form the general resources and wealth 
of the state and give the moral assurance to all who may trust them, that 
should they immigrate and settle here, under j^roper circumstances and 
with the proper spirit and energy, their fondest aspirations will not be blasted, 
but on the contrary will be fully verified. 

Joining them, the citizens of the state offer to immigrants a large 
quantity of excellent and cheap lands, much superior to those in other states 
at like rates, scattered throughout the state, in its most fertile regions, well 
timbered, fairly roaded, and susceptible, by proper cultivation, of produc- 
ing almost 

Everything Necessary and Useful 
for their welfare and prosperity, and this with little or no pains, with hardly 



9 

any capital except the indispensable outlay to start with, and to have matters 
and things to move in the right direction. 

They offer to them a temperate climate, free from blizzards in winter, 
although trying at times, but usually bearable in summer; a country as 
healthy, perphaps healthier than any other similarly situated. Of course, peo- 
ple will die here from disease, as they do anywhere, but many live to quite 
advanced age. The mass is not afflicted with those extraordinary maladies 
which occasionally prey like scourges on doomed communities. 

Yellow fever once prevailing here, locally and not as a general thing, 
has not made its appearance for many years owing in part no doubt to wise 
sanitary precautions and to a scattering of the populations of cities. From 
all indications this dreaded curse will never more show its hideous form, or if 
it does it should not alarm settlers or planters in the rural portions of the 
state beyond its reach. 

We Offer to Immigrant 

a law-abiding people, honest, charitable and chivalrous, ever ready to lend 
a helping hand to all needing and deserving assistance. 

We offer them the assurance that our people, as a body, is a moral 
people, reverencing religious principles, encouraging the development of 
morality and education, convinced (however much they may diverge on 
certain subjects on those matters) that honesty is the best policy, and that 
in their intercourse men must be controlled by the wise maxim: "Do unto 
others that which you wish others to do unto you." 

Others better informed on those topics, and who will follow, will adduce 
satisfactory proof that we have well regulated free schools and numerous 
churches, both of easy access; that others are daily put up and maintained, 
wherever the need of growing population requires, all over the state and at 
which all can learn, much more than the rudiments of knowledge and the 
fundamental principles on which morality and religion must rest. 

They will also show that justice is administered by courts in which the 
rights of life, liberty, property and the pursuits of happiness are recognized 
and enforced under a system of legislation which is at least 

Equal if not Superior to any other. 

In exchange all that is expected is that those to whom those friendly 
and advantageous offers are extended and, who may accept them shall be 
upright, energetic, enterprising and public-spirited men. 

Of Louisiana, as of Naples, it may well be said that it is a fragment of 
heaven fallen on the earth. Indeed, the soil of Louisiana is such that tickled 
with a hoe it smiles into a harvest. Applause. 

Let such then come to us; let them see and judge for themselves of the 
sincerity of our representations; let them settle among us, exert themselves 
as they ought to, and they may rest assured that their undertaking, in no 
way hazardous, will be fully crowned with success, and that all will miufrle 
fraternally; and, with the blessing of Providence, enhance mightily the com- 
mon good, the prosperity and the greatness of a common beloved state. To 
all we tender a hearty welcome. (Great applause.) 

President Knapp then introduced 

Colonel Joseph A. Breaux, 
State Superintendent of public education, who said 



10 

"There has been so much study given to the subject of popular education. 
So many essays and articles have been written with great excellence of ex- 
pression on the subject. So many addresses have been delivered, elaborately 
prepared and delivered with remarkable eloquence; I feel apprehensive that 
it will not be possible for me to utter any thought that will interest this 
large audience, most of whom doubtless have given the subject attention and 
have meditated on the necessity of encouraging the public schools and of 
giving to the future generations every advantage of education possible. 

Popular education is the cherished policy of our government. The 
wisest statesman have unhesitatingly contended that the government as the 
organ of society has the right and the authority to meet the necessity of 
popular education. 

Independent manhood and free schools developed pari passu, in the 
forests of the new world. 

The colonists of this country built school houses at the same time if 
not before they constructed homes for themselves. 

Jefferson, Dane, Madison and other statesmen assumed without question, 
that knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of 
mankind, schools and the means of education should be forever encouraged 

Early in the history of the country, the proposition was adopted by 
the Congress of the Confederation, viz: 

"There shall be reserved the lot No. 167, of every township for the main- 
tenance of public schools, within its limits." The intention was, in every 
township to establish a free school. In August, 1847, another section, the 
36th was donated and reserved for school purposes in each State thereafter 
to be admitted. A number of munificent donations have been made by the 
general government to schools, colleges and universities. Under wise 
influences and the policy referred to the free school system has become a 
great and highly improving force, especially the North and North-west. It is un- 
deniably true that its great value is not always appreciated in Louisiana. 
The public school system is not as useful as it should be. In certain 
localities it is not useful at all. We are pleased to greet you. You will aid 
the large and influential number in our State who consider the common 
school system as a great factor in American civilization. The influence of 
this large and influential number, prevailed during the session of the 
General Assembly held this year. The school laws were remodelled. The 
revenues were increased; not sufiiciently it must be regrettingly admitted. 
The restrictions in the organic law prevents such an increase as is needed. 
Why these restrictions were incorporated in the State Constitution adopted 
in 1879, it is useless to discuss. They are restrictions upon education and 
for the time being must be obeyed. In the law lately adopted provision is 
made to increase the revenues for schools in the parishes. The minimum 
of taxation levied in the parishes heretofore was generally one mill. 

Under the present law, it should be one and a half mills, and may be 
as many mills in addition as the Police Juries see proper to appropriate. 

This is a local tax, in addition to the State apportionment lor the support 
of schools, there is a poll tax and the free school interest tax. 

In parishes in which there is a healthy public opinion regarding schools, 
an increase in the revenues from this local tax will be obtained. 

Where there is no great love for the school law and where mandatory 
provisions in this connection are as naught, and where the feeling is one of 
indifierence to popular education and there exists no sympathy for those 



11 

who arp anxiouslj seeking to escape being classed among the children of 
darkness and illiteracy, this provision of the law will not accomplish much. 

Immigration should be favored. It is of the utmost importance. 

An intelligent immigrant in search of a home (by the way most immi- 
grants are intelligent, generally the dullard does not emigrate) will not 
fail to enquire about the schools. 

He well knows that in most communities where the schools are entirely 
neglected; where the schools do not inspire the least interest, there are not 
many citizens prominent, because of their excellent qualities and good traits. 

The schools epitomize the State. They reflect the excellence of the 
community. At any rate in most instances, not always possibly. The phi- 
lanthropist Peabody said: "Education is a debt due by the present genera- 
tion to future generations." He was a banker and it was natural for him to 
express a correct idea somewhat in bankers' parlance. He credited future 
generations and charged the present with the debt, education. Some- 
what of a double entry. The present generation in Louisiana is not dis- 
charging its debt, in so far as relates to the common schools. This debt 
should no longer be overlooked or neglected. 

The tax-payer who seeks to escape the payment of a few dollars, because 
forsooth Jiis neighbor or his neighbors' children will receive greater advan- 
tages, than he or his children will receive, cuts a poor figure in the 
development and improvement of the community in which he resides. He 
is a fit subject to inhabit some spot in the steppes of Asia or to sit on the 
banks of the Ganges and contemplate the mother who casts her child to the 
stream because she is unable to provide for its wants. 

During the colonial days, Sir William Berkeley, Governor, wrote in 
reply to a question of the English Commissioners: 

"I thank God there are no free schools, nor printing, and I hope we 
shall not have these hundred years; for learning has brought disobedience 
and heresy and sects into the world and printing has divulged them and 
hbels against the best government." "God keep them from both." 

Herostratus has made his name known by setting fire and destroying the 
temple of Artemis at Ephesus. This Govenor has proven himself as 
successful. 

Frequently the tax-payer, without reflection, will feel unkind because 
he is made to pay a larger tax bill than he thinks he should pay. If he 
will reflect a moment respecting the small portion of his taxes is paid for 
the benefit of schools and the great good accomplished by the schools, he 
will recover in an instant from all unkind feelings at any rate in so far 
as relates to the school tax. 

Having taken the position that the revenues are insufficient to improve 
our schools and their standard, it is proper to make some suggestion 
having in view such remedy as may be within the domain of poj^sibility at 
this time. Much must necessarily be left to the ingenuity of a united 
and active people (nearly always equal to any occasion or necessity). It is 
evident that it would prove quite an economy of the school fund; if the 
school buildings, permanent improvements, the sites, the furniture, appara- 
tus and appliances were bought by the inhabitants, at their own expense 
and with iht ir own contributions. These should be owned by the community 
for the schools onlv. They should be large, airy, attractive. 

If these were subscribed by the communities the whole of the school fund 



12 

would then be expended for the payment of teachers and for the payment 
of the expenses of the school proper. 

This would not be entirelj^ sufficient, but it would be the means of 
bringing about great improvement in the standard of the schools. The 
law-makers have made other changes. 

The manner of selecting teachers has been improved: Competitive 
examination in their selection is earnestly recommended. The local Boards 
are appointed by the State Board of Education. 

The success of the school system, depends to a considerable extent 
upon the energy and intelligence of these Boards. Some of them at times 
are indifferent. Whenever they are at all interested in the success of the 
schools under their supervision, and take part in favoring their success even 
with limited means the schools improve. You well know that little attention 
from above has great influence in matters of school. 

The Legislature has provided for holding Institutes, State and local. 
The former is in charge of the State Normal School at Natchitoches. The 
latter is left to the management of parish superintendents. There are two 
Normal Schools in the State. The one just mentioned and another in New 
Orleans. The latter is mostly if not entirely local; with time it will doubt- 
less extend its usefulness. • 

There is a University in the city of New Orleans. The Tulane to which 
I refer, because it has received considerable aid from the State. My object 
being at this time to limit my remarks to institutions under its control. I 
will not refer to all its departments, but I will mention that it has a literary 
also a technical and mechanical department. There are a number of 
students in this department. The management is excellent. It is receiving 
the appreciation it deserves. There is also a university for colored students 
The Southern University. It is endowed by the State and receives consid- 
eration and attention on the part of those in authority. There is an 
institution of learning in Baton Rouge, The Louisiana State University and 
the Agricultural and Mechanical College. Hope is entertained that this 
university will increase its usefulness. The tuition is free. The costs of 
support of the students have been lately very much reduced. It is pro- 
posed, I understand, to make this institution especially useful in training 
young men in the science of agriculture at the same time, they are taught 
the usual curriculum generally adopted in institutions of learning. 

There are experimental agricultural stations, regularly organized. The 
students have the benefit of the educational advantages offered by these 
stations. They are estimated I may say with the institution. These stations 
are under the direction of an agricultural bureau. 

The officers are: 

The Commissioner of Agriculture. 

The President of the University . 

The Professor of Chemistry and of Agriculture of this University. 

The.'je stations are well endowed and are in a satisfactory condition. 
This bureau, these stations and organizations have excited interest in agri- 
cultural science. 

Planters and farmers have improved.- They have adopted methods 
more economical than heretofore. The fertility of the fcoil has been stimula- 
te<l, tind fields considerably more than heretofore. • 



13 

Drains are being iraproved, better machinery and field implementa are 
now in use. 1 am well aware that I have not made extremely favorable 
statements in regard to tbe common schools. They are not what they should 
be, but do not conclude that I am at all despondent even in regard to the 
common schools. 

The advantages in Louisiana are many. They will be developed. The 
common schools will receiye deserved attention and support. 

During the early part of last summer, a party of gentlemen from the 
South were in a Northern city. They were handsomely entertained and 
during the time they repaired to different places in the great city and «ome 
distance in the country. The wealth, the magnificent edifices and beautiful 
landscapes were admired. The large domes and high steeples did not fail 
to attra<^t — to create a sentiment of the beautiful. One of the party at 
least, — reflecting for an instant was almost sad. It seemed to him in poor 
Louisiana, there is not such abundance. Her buildings and improvements 
are poor indeed in comparison. 

It happened that on the return of the party to the city, they met little 
boys who were selling flowers. A few bouquets were bought. It was in 
early summer. These flowers did not have any fragrance. Their color was 
pale dull. Our low places, our marshes and even our swamps would have 
denied such flowers. 

On his return home after this pleasant journey, it was his pleasure to 
admire the fields of cane and corn expanding in the distance as it were to 
heaven. During the Autumn he had occasion to admire large fields, white 
with cotton, as if so many flakes of snow had fallen upon their broad surface 
— the thought naturally occured to him, after all Lnuisiana is not so poor. 
In advantages this State will compare favorably with any of the States of 
this great IJnion. 

As to common schools, although the revenues are not as much as they 
should be, the citizens despite Constitutional restrictions will devise ways 
and means to improve them and make them worthy of the State and its 
people. In welcoming you to our State we feel particularly pleased for we 
know that you will not be slow in taking part in this good work. (Great 
Applause.) 

Address of Welcome by Rev. Dr. B. M. Palmer! 

whose name was next upon the programme of speakers, was heartily greeted 
on rising. He delivered an able, thoughtful address on " Iteligion and 
Churches of Louisiana, ' as follows : 

" Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen of the Convention — In reading the 
New Testament I find its epistles opening and closing with salutations to the 
parties addressed; and I see no reason why in our own day the angels of the 
churches might not address similar greetings to all who approach them. 
It is for this simple purpose that I appear this morning. 

The highest legal representative of this common wealth has assured you of 
the protection which the law extends to all equally and without distinction. 
The superintendent of public education has spoken of the condition of our 
schools; and how those present, and all who come to abide with us, are 
entitled equally with ourselves, to take advantage of these privileges. Al- 
though speaking simply as an individual, having no official authdrity from 
that branch of the church to which I belong and still leas from other bran-- 



14 

ches of the cliurch to whicli I am loosely related, it so not unbecoming in 
me to 

POINT TO THE OPEN DOOBS 

of all our sanetuariea and to assure all those who come with honest intent 
within our borders that they are welcome to all the privileges of the sanctua- 
ry. You may perhaps ask me for a guarantee of this broad statement. Let me 
remind you that Christianity is nothing if it be not love; and if the church 
breathe the spirit of the Gospel she must open her arms to all who come with 
honest and good intentions. 

Least of all can the church afford to be indifferent to the claims 
of those who come in a Christian spirit. Everj' man who is virtuous, every 
man who is intelligent, who has the love of God in his heart and desires 
with us to extend the Eedeemer's kingdom over the world, has precisely 
the same place in our homes and in our churches as those who are to the 
manor born; and to such is due welcome not onl}' to the privileges of the 
sanctuary, but to the fellowship and^ esteem which the first implies. But 
there is an additional guarantee. We of the south have been made to lay 
especial emphasis upon the distinction between the church and the state. 
We have been compelled to regard the church as purely spiritual — her func- 
tions as purely spiritual. She has no commission from her Divine Head to 
control governments or to 

ALTER THE COMPLEXION OF LEGISLATION. 

Whatever our individual relation to the state as citizens, whatever we might 
feel free to do as members of our churches, officially we regard ourselves as 
confined to the simple function of preaching the Gospel and saving the souls 
of our fellow-men. I believe that in all the branches of the Christian 
church in Louisiana their outlook is simply upon the world, and their sole 
care the bringing of men into the kingdom of the redeemer. They have 
nothing to do with the distinctions of part}', race or sect. 

Their simple desire is to fulfil that revelation which God has given to 
them and to open the portals of the kingdom into which the blessed are 
permitted to enter. From their convictions they are compelled to be liberal 
and generous-hearted. It is impossible for the church, understanding aright 
its mission and its proper character, to be sectional or partisan. In proof of 
this, I have simply to point my finger to the open doors of the church's 
sanctuaries and to bid each of you welcome to all the privileges of the house 
of God. Even during the 

DARK AND DISMAL DATS OF RECONSTRUCTION 

when it was necessary that some degree of caution should be exercised as 
to parties coming to us from abroad, no man who came to us from the north 
or the west, giving evidence of his intention to assimilate with us, to share 
with us our public and private fortunes, and to advance the interests of the 
land wherein he was about to dwell — no such man was in any quarter ever 
refused the heartiest recognition: and I am satisfied that there are men in 
this city of New Orleans who will deliver their testimony that the way to 
office in the church of Louisiana is as fairly open to such men thi-ough an 
honest election of the people, as to those who are to the manor born. 

I feel free therefore as a Christian man, knowing somewhat of the 
Christian spirit of the people amongst whom I have dwelt for a third of a 



15 

pentnry, to extend to all -who come with honest intent a hearty welcome, 
uutil the blessed tidings of a conimou salvation has been spread over the 
face of the earth. I regard this as a Bacred right due to jou through the 
will of the Father of us all, a right granted to ail men by the king who 
dwells in Heaven above. (Great Applause.) 

Poem of Welcome bt Mary Ashley Townsend, 

was then read very effectively by Mr. W. E. Lyman of this city: 

Here smiles our fair-faced Louisiana, lo ! 
Mere fraction of her regal self — but oh, 

A splendid fraction still ! Behold, she stands 
With lips that with their gladness overflow, 

And welcomes for the world in her sweet hands ! 

The blood of Spain is warm upon her cheek, 
The lire of France is sparkling in her eye, 
And Creole graces sit upon her brow, 
And tune the witching cadence of her voice. 
As radiant she, as Sheba, when she stood. 
Before the throne of Solomon, the king ; 
And beauteous as was Miriam, when she clashed. 
Her joyful cymbals on the Red Sea's shore ! 

(applause.) 

The fabled isle whereon Ulysses roved, 
A seven years' captive to Calypso's charms, 
Not fairer was, than are these fruitful plains. 
Where Louisiana's glowing gardens spread. 
Their sumptuous blossoms to the generous sun ! 
Her sw^eet-sapped cane fields glitter in the light. 
Their jocund juices reveling in the stalks 
Which shake their shining pennons in the wind. 
The golden apples of Hesperides 
Their mellow bounty droj:) o'er every hedge. 

(applause.) 
To her majestic live oak man may go 
To cull the moss for beauty's yielding couch. 
Or cut for ponderous ships their rugged ribs. 
Her opulent Magnolia, year by year, 
Rebuilds its ivory villages, and sends 
Its pomp of perfume out to freight the air ; 
While that white blessing which God gave the world. 
The bounteous cotton, in its ripened grace 
O'er regal acres sj^reads its frost] ess snow. 
The tawny river the explorer found 
A lonely monarch in a wilderness, 
NoT\% commerce-crowned, goes sweeping to the sea. 
Past cultured pi-airies once the cypress claimed. 

And lo, her valleys sleeping in the sun ! 
Beneath the tiowers which make their coverlet 
Undreamed of treasures hide them for that day 
When Labor, wedded to the soil, shall wuke 
Them all to marriage gladness, and great gifts. 



16 



And unexampled harvests! And she calls — 
Calls loud and sweet, with voice of all the South. 
Come hither, oh, ye weary sons of toil. 

Come hither, ye who labor and despair 
And spend your strength on unrewarding stones; 
Here bring the hearts that break for want of work, 
Here bringyourbrains, your sinews and your powers. 
Come hither, and beneath these generous skies 
Build up your homes and rear your little ones! 
Let the thick smoke of factories strangle vice, 
And busy spade and plow turn o'er the glebe. 
Till buried idleness can rise no more ! 
And, when the day's sweet labor shall be done, 
And balmy eve lies pillowed on her flowers. 
The yellow moon will light the moss-roofed path 
"Where you may walk with your beloved, and wear 
On your uplifted brows contentment's crown! 

(applause.) 

And still beyond these crystal gates, sweet Ifinda 
Enticements hold for Enterprise to find — 
Not only buried cities, and the tombs 
Of ruined kingdoms and forgotten kings. 
But worlds of wonder to rejoice his eyes. 
Bich as that marvelous cave of Eastern tale. 
The South-west yonder smiles, scarce out of sight, 
Waiting the voice of commerce to ring out 
The magic "Open Sesame," that will fling 
The mystic portals wide for him who seeks ! 
So doth she welcome you this festal day, 

Our radiant Louisiana — peerless queen — 
Crowned, and in all her loveliest array, 

In roses sandaled — robed in living green. 
(Prolonged Applause.) 

Address of Welcome by Hon. Joseph A. Shakspeare, Mayor op New Orleans' 

Hon. Joseph A. Shakspeare, mayor of the city of New Orleans, amidst 
much applause, spoke as follows: 

Gentlemen of the Convention — I welcome you in the name of the city of 
New Orleans, knowing that you are assembled here for one of the most mo- 
mentous occasions ever held in Louisiana. If there is one State in the South 
that needs a convention of such gentlemen as I see before me, I think it is 
Louisiana. We are suflering for immigration. Not for that class which 
has at times found its way here, but for those of the superior kind to which 
you belong. (Hearty Applause.) 

Louisiana lands are as fruitful as any in our country. Her climate is 
excellent, and her health (thanks to the board of health) has lost its old 
reputation, and yellow fever has, it seems, been shut out. 

Why, the idea of 

a convention at this timb or the year 

is remarkable, and there are more people in Nrfr Orleane n«yw i\ma tm 



17 

years. My own family has been here all summer for the first time sinc« 
1878. 

I hope that this will be the beginoing and not the end of an immigra- 
tion movement. There have been many conventions of this kind held in 
our city. I was connected with one myself some years back, and we spent 
money in it, too, but it was too soon for such a movement and nothing 
came of it. Now, gentlemen, is the proper time to bring people such as 
you are to this State. 

I again welcome you to our city. (Great Applause.) 

The next address was made by 

Dk. C. p. WiLKlNSOX 

president of the State Board of Health. He read as follows regarding 
data and statistics of the health of Louisiana. 

Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Convention — The task allotted to me 
in the programme is one upon which I have entered with a great deal of 
pleasure, because it has enabled me to bring before you, and through you 
before the general public, certain indisputable truths to establish the fact 
that the fertile State of Louisiana is among the most healthy of the States 
of the Union. 

Abroad it is the common belief that a white man cannot dwell an entire 
summer in Louisiana without passing through spells of perilous sickness; 
this erroneous belief especially appljing to recent arrivals from other sec- 
tions, those to the manor born being sometimes allowed an exemption from 
the fatal influences of the poisonous atmosphere alleged to float continually 
over our fields; to be inured to the arid, scorching heat which beats, untem- 
pered by cooling breezes; to be hardened to influences which would quickly 
kill any other (Jaucasian, through a process which, for want of a better or 
less bad appellation, is termed "acclimatization." 

The influences which this gathering of stalwart men, strong of arm 
and clear of eye, and altogether unacclimated, will have upon an elucidation 
of the entire truth, can hardly be estimated. No word from friends can 
magnify or exaggerate the condition of facts when you are here to act, to 
speak, to demonstrate for yourselves; and the voice of the traducer must, in 
the presence of this assembly, be still. 

Probably the principal obstacle which has heretofore existed against 
the influx of settlers from Northern and Western States into this, has been 
the annual outcry raised against us of yellow fever. 

Fortj' years ago danger from this cause seemed to operate only in the 
City of New Orleans. Refugees fled no further than the villages beyond 
Lake Pontchartrain, to the pine woods of Eastern Louisiana and Southern 
Mississippi, to the plantations on the Lafourche and along the coast, and 
maintained unrestricted intercourse with the stricken city without apparent- 
ly disastrous results to the exiled. 

In the year 1878 the disease spread over the entire South, following in 
the track of travelers from infected regions, and invading retreats of high 
altitudes hitherto deemed more than surely safe from a visitation. The 
recollection of that epidemic lives now principally in the memories of the 
individuals who survived some loss, and of the thoughtful sanitarian. 



18 



THE DKEAD OF YELLOW FEVER 

previous to the year 1878, in the country, *a matter afar off, became then a 
known and tangible fear; and afterward, irresponsible and untraceable ru- 
mors of the appearance of this disease without foundation of fact, annually 
created alarm and did much to deter enterprising men from entering and 
locating their homes within this State's borders. 

This dread has now in a geat measure subsided, from two causes; the 

first, that no grounds for suspicion have occurred; that no symptom of a 
case of yellow fever has developed in the State within the past few years; 
and the second, that the Board of Health stands solemnly pledged to give 
the very first case the fullest and widest publicity. 

The slightest study of the history of yellow fever and of quarantine 
operations within this State will convince you that mortality from the one 
has decreased pari jyassu with better and more complete application of the 
other. During the first decade of the past forty years, nine years of which 
this city was without any quarantine, and the one year it did exist barely 
in name, more than half of the total deaths from yellow fever of the whole 
fort}^ 3 ears occurred within that short ten; the other lesser portion being 
distributed, with lessening number every year, over the remaining thirty. 

From a close study of the operations of the various quarantine systems, 
successive Boards of Health have evolved plans, until to-day one exists 
which is certified by disinterested parties as superior to anything at present 
in the world. 

Coincident with the evolution and application of the present quarantine 
service ceased the annual appearance of cases of yellow fever on shipboard 
at the wharves of this city or among those persons but recently in commu- 
nication therewith. We are now in the middle of the third year of total 
exemption from yellow fever; in my opinion, an exemption most closely con- 
nected with the application of our quarantine service. I am too familial 
with the fallibility of human nature; too well aware of our ignorance of 
the laws which control epidemic diseases and the susceptibility of a commu- 
nity to overcome or be prostrated hj epidemic morbific influences to state 
authoritatively that we have found the means of securing ourselves against 
an invasion of the dreaded enemy, but I do confidently assert that, if undis- 
turbed in its quarantine operations, if left to work out the problem with the 
aid of the best men and materials at its command, if unthwarted by the 
jealousies of individuals or by the undetected evasions of rules by travelers 
and mariners, the safe solution of the question by a Board of Health is not 
far distant. 

But with the problem solved, and mortality from yellow fever unmen- 
tioned in our records, the rate in the City of New Orleans is not what it 
should be, not yet placed in the high rank to which it is entitled by its 
natural advantages. 

The Mortuary Statistics 

are published weekly, and the records being open to public inspection and 
comparison, I will not tire you by reciting a mass of statistics other than to 
mention the three principal causes of death and their percentage to the total 
roll, for the past two years, in this city, two periods of time which may with 
justness be cited as a fair sample, since neither presents any marked vaziaLioPi. 
from the usual. 



l9 

in 1886 the deaths in this city from fevers of all kinds were 379, or G.02 
per cent of death from all causes; from consumption 889, or 12.55 per cent; 
from cholera infantum 188, or 2.98 per cent. 

In 1887 — All fevers 332, or 5.36 per cent: consumption 773, or 11 per 
cent, and cholera infantum 171, or 2.81 per cent, both white and colored 
included. In this calculation is also included the dtnihs in the Charity 
Hospital, an institution drawing patients from every section of the country; 
these deaths amounting in 1886 to 960 and in 1887 to 941. Thus you see 
an improvement in 1887 over 1886, an improvement which will become 
more marked as our citizens advance in their knowledge of hjgiene and 
sanitation. 

The eflforts which are being made to have these two branches taught in 
our public schools, efforts which I trast and believe will be successful; the 
attention of our people being directed towards drainage and municipal sani- 
tation; the constant discussion of the subject and the dissemination of 
information in the matter now undertaken by our sanitarians, are all most 
potent factors towards the education of the people and will most j^ositively 
be productive of excellent results. 

The City of New Orleans has improved in its death rate remarkably in the 
last half century, and though not yet as low as it should be; the interest so 
plainly manifested in the subject bj' her people, makes the conviction certain 
that in a few years her rank, from a position lower than the average of the 
healthy cities of the Union will be placed on a plane with the healthiest in 
the world. General and persistent attention through the channels of drain- 
age and municipal sanitation will very soon i-educe that mortality, which is 
now the fault of our citizens and not of our situation. 

I will present to you the unbiased and disinterested testimony of Mr. 
Wm. P. Stewart, the actuary and vital statistician of the Mutual Life 
Insurance Company of New York, whose business is to inquire exhaustively 
into the 

Vital Statistics of Sectons of Country 

where that company proposes to establish ofiBces. He says of Louisiana: 

"You can ask for no better evidence of the facts that your general 
healthfulness is now recognized as assured than to consult your best informed 
businessmen on the significance of the action of the Conservative Mutual 
Life Insurance Company coming into your midst. No one indication of the 
year has so much encouraged them as this, because they tnow this company 
speaks for the largest financial corporation of the world, the soundest prin- 
ciple of mutuality, and the most conservative business interest, * * * I 
have already expressed my conviction that you are dostined to grow into 
recognition as the great winter resort, and I now venture to prophesy that, 
with the newly awakened spirit of your people, you will aee before the next 
decade a commerce doubled, a population increased 50 per cent, and a pro- 
perty value as will make fortunes for those who venture as business men. 
I have been charmed with the river scenery, the like of which is nowhere 
else to be found. The many village-like plantations, with their evidences of 
wealth, refinements and comfort: the broad sweep of river; the luxurious 
spread of foliage; the inviting stretch of latid; the characteristic homes of 
the wealthy are nowhere else to be seen; and with the trim, tr<^e-shaded 
glistening white cottages, go to make up a panorama such as would delight 



20 

the eye of the most traveled tourist, and put to shame the merest suggestion 
of "stored-up disease." 

The next evidence of like disinterested character which I will present 
to you is the United States census of 1880, the completed volumes of which 
are only just pubhshed. There is no other authority from which we may 
draw practical conclusions; the basis is only for 1880, and, as no visitations 
of epidemic scourges took place in any section of our country that year, 
the standard may be accepted as conclusive. The errors incidental to one 
place are practically common to all, and our inferences drawn from a study 
of the tables presented should be accepted as very nearly correct. 

After careful and repeated examinations of the tables presented, I am 
surprised to find that the dififerent localities of the Union do not differ large- 
ly in the aggregate to their mortality, the extreme from lowest to highest 
being only 8 in 1000 of popiilation. 

The Aveeage Mortality 

for the whole United States is 14.70 per 1000 for the whites and 17.29 for 
the blacks. 

For the white, Oregon is first, with a mortality of 11.04 per 1000, with 
Minnesota an excellent second at 11.51 and Arkansas brings up the foot of 
the list with a mortality of 19.11, very closely pushed by educated and 
scientific Massachusetts with a mortality of 18.56. 

For the blacks, the negro enjoys the greatest exemption in Florida, 
having a rate of mortality in that State of 11.36 per 1000. He has a very 
hard time in Rhode Island, where his mortality is 27.10, and he is very much 
worse, and the very worst off, under the very eye of his particular guardian, 
the general government, for his mortality in the District of Columbia is 35. 
62 per 1000. 

Now as to the position which Louisiana occupies in the white list. I am 
very sure that Vermont, Tennessee, ludiana and Texas have each of 
them enviable reputations for healthfulness, and a favorable comparison 
of Louisiana with any of the four would undoubtedly excite derison. 

What are the facts? Vermont has a white mortality of 15.12 per 1000: 
Tennessee, 15.21: Louisiana, 15.45; Indiana, 15.88, and Texas 15.86; or, in 
this group of known healthy States, Louisiana stands superior to two and 
presents only a very small fractional inferiority to the others. 

The relative positions of the States, including the whole populations, 
are tabulated and are annexed to this report, which is submitted to you for 
your disposal, but the reading will occupy too much of your time. 

Vital statisticians place very much reliance upon the proportion of 
deaths of children under five years old as indicative of the good or ill-health 
of locality. This is undoubtedly a correct index of a fact, but its significance 
is in my opinion incorrectly applied. The laws which apply to the health 
and growth of an infant are very similar to the laws which govern the life 
and growth of other things. Suitable food and suitable protection from 
effects of varying temperatures are equally necessasy in the nursei'y of 
human habitations and in the nursery of a florist. The rate of mortality of 
children under five years marks with unerring finger the ignorance, supersti- 
tion, uncleanlinesa and indifference of grown persons, and not at all the 



21 

oonditioTis of climate. An index, indeed, of moral fault on part of a people, 
but of little intent in reference to the salubrity of a locality. 

Outside of large cities, in the rural regions of a State, the deaths from 
that universal disease, consumption, aud the deaths of persons having 
passed beyond ninety-five years of life is, in my opinion, the truest and 

BEST EXPONENT OF THE CLIMATIC CONDITIONS 

and life possibilities of any given place. 

Typhoid fever is now generally accepted to be dependent upon the 
purity of the drinking water supply, aud is a matter of local or individual 
prevention. 

Malarial fever tells the sanitarian of undrained soils, impure water for 
drinking purposes and individual neglect. Without reference to other 
agencies which bring about those paroxysms of fever which are designated 
by this name, I advance the commonly accepted doctrine that the most po- 
tential factor in the origin of this diseaseis humid soil, and therefore the 
percentage of mortality from this disease is hardly at all due to the climatic 
causes, but to imperfect or impossible terrestrial dryness. 

It is unnecessary to appeal to your medical men for corroboration of 
this statement. You know its truth yourselves, every one of you, I venture 
to say, from personal experience. Examples confirming the truth of my 
assertion are of daily occurance. 

Returning to official figures, and now excluding the large cities, we 
arrive at tables which meet our purpose — the relative salubrity of the rural 
portion of each State. 

The highest on record of percentage of deaths from malarial fever 
stands Florida, with 9.53 per cent, of its total mortality from this disease; 
the lowest Rhode Island, with only .08 per cent. In between these two 
extremes come the other States, those adjacent to our gieat streams showing 
a higher rate than the others. Arkansas has 7.65 per cent, Alabama 7.35, 
Mississippi 7.06, Louisiana 6.06, and Texas 6.04. Our own State showing 
more favorably than any other neighbors, save one, in a mortality springing 
from a disease largely preventable by ordinary attention, by the mass of the 
people, to the plainest and simplest laws of hygiene. 

The least infant mortality is exhibited in New Hampshire, which has, 
20.88 percent of infant, to the total mortality; Maine, 23.57; Vermont, 24.10 
California, 25.31 ; New York, 25.39; Connecticut, 26.15; Massachusetts, 29.21 
Ohio, 33.36; Rhode Ibhmd, 33.69; Oregon, 34.99; New Jersey, 35.52 
Wisconsin, 35.61; Pennsylvania, 36.15, and then Louisiana with 38.05, the 
list ending with Kansas and Nebraska, the highest rates in the Union — 
Kansas with 47.56 and Nebraska with 49.12 per cent. 

In this list 

LOUISIANA 18 NOT PRECEDED 

by any Southern State. And should the calculation b*e based on the white 
population only or on an ( qual per cent of colored to white which exists in 
each of the Northern States ahead of her, her rank would not be fifteenth, 
but third or fourth. The infant mortality among negroes is enormously 
large, as from their habits it must be. Substitute a comparison between the 
whites in the rural sections of the Union, North and South, and many of our 
Southern States would show that our people cared well for their young. 



22 

Tiie mortality from consumption, that dreaded, universal and almost 
hopelessly fatal disease, can in the country, where the close confinement of 
people engaged in sedentary occupations, in ill-ventilated, crowded apart- 
ments does not exist, may be taken as a fair criterion of the actual influence 
of climatic conditions on the inhabitants. Arkansas enjoys greatest 
exemption from this disease vyith percentage to its total mortality of G.42; 
Texas second, with 6.05 per cent; Nebraska third, with 6.93; Kansas fourth 
with 7.54; Louisiana fifth, with 7.41; Florida sixth, with 8.14; Oregon twen- 
tieth, with 12.12 per cent; California thirty-third, with 15.80, and Maine the 
very last, with 19.16 per cent. 

These figures represent the death rate and do away with the suggestion 
that the mortality from the disease is largely influenced by invalids seeking 
the curative powers of certain climates. That influence is in reality small, 
because a larger number of those unbenefitted return to their homes to die, 
and rarely do friends carry away from home patients in the last stages of 
the disease. 

The percentage of deaths of people over ninety-five years to the total 
mortality, or, in other words, the proportion of old people in a State, 
demonstrating beyond cavil the possibilities and probabilities of life in those 
localities, is exhibited by the census as follows: 

Vermont stands first with a percentage of .70 of old people to total 
mortality, and Louisiana second with .62, Florida sixth with .53, Ehode 
Island tenth with .45, Tennessee twentieth with .27, and Nebraska the very 
last with only .03 per cent. 

From the foregoing facts we may conclude with certainty: 1. That 
Louisiana enjoyes relatively to her neighbors 

A FAVORABLE POSITION 

in regard to mortality from malarial fevers, being superior to Arkansas, 
Alabama, Mississippi and Florida, and only a small fraction inferior to 
Texas. 

2. That her percentage of deaths of children places her above any of 
the Southern States, and, if like population be compared with like, her 
position will be third or fourth among all the United States. 

3. That her position in reference to lowest rate of deaths from con- 
sumption, a disease very dependent upon climatic conditions, is fifth. 

4. That her percentage of deaths of old people places her second 
among all the States for possibilities of long life. 

Not all the wealth is gold wrung and delved from our fields, or dug 
from mines, or wrought by clang of hammer or hum of spool and spindle, 
but more than these, 

"Public health is public wealth." 

(Loud Applause.) 

The next address on the programme was by 

Capt. R. E. Kerkam, 

U. S. Signal Corps, Director, Louisiana Weather Service, who read as 
follows regarding data and statistics of the climate of Louisiana: 



"Mr. Ghaii-Timn, Ladies and Gentlemen: — It affords me pleasvire, as iL 
representative of the National Signal Service, to be able to bring the 
work of the Service before this Convention in a jiractical manner, and to 
prove by official records that the climate of Louisiana is more agreeable 
the year 'round than that of any other section in the United States. To 
do this a series of comparisons will be necessary, and to avoid a lengthy 
dissertation on the subject, by States, we will consider only the sections 
embraced by the Extreme Northwest, the Upper Mississippi and Missouri 
Valleys and the Pacific Coast Regions. 

These sections have been taken for comparison, not because they 
make Louisiana's claims stronger for the immigrant, but because they 
include a greater acreage of farming lands and are considered the best in 
the Union. Should a doubt exist in any mind that a choice was made, it 
can readily be dispelled by a glance at the Weather Map displayed here. 

Considering the extreme degree of heat, the normal mean maximum 
temperature, for the hottest month, July, we find from Signal Service re- 
cords that the section of country from southern Illinois and southeastern 
Missouri to central IMinnesota lias an average of 84 ° , with an average of 
the lowest temperatures for the same month of 66 =■ , making the average 
daily range of temperature 18 ° . The same figures for the same month 
for the section of country from soiithwestern Missouri to central Dakota 
are, average highest, 85 ° , average lowest, 63 ° , making the average daily 
range 22 ® . For the section of country embracing northern Minnesota 
and northern Dakota, we find an average highest temperature of 78 ° , an 
average lowest of 65°, making an average daily range of 23®. For 
Louisiana, for the same month , the average highest was 91 ° , average 
lowest 74 ° , making an average daily range of 17 ° . 

Considering the coldest month: It is found that the first named sec- 
tion (the upper Mississippi valley) had an average highest temperature 
for January of 31 *= , and an average lowest of 13 ° , making an average 
daily range of 18 ° . For the second section (the Missouri valley) for the 
month of January has an average highest temperature of 25 ° , an average 
lowest of 3 ° , with an average daily range of.temperature of 22 ^ . The third 
named section (the extreme Northwest) has an average highest tempera- 
ture for January of 9°, an average lowest of 1:5 ° below zero, making the 
average daily range of temperature 22 ~ . Louisiana has for the same 
month an average highest temperature of 59 ° , an average lowest of 44 * , 
making the average daily range for the month 15°. 

To consider the highest and lowest temperatures recorded on any 
day at any of the stations in the various districts : 

It is found that the maximum temperature for the Mississippi vaUey 
for summer is 103 ° , recorded at Des Moines, Iowa, and at Cairo, HI. The 
lowest temperature for that section in winter is recorded as 43 ° below 
zero, at Lacrosse, Wis., or an absolute range of temperature of 146*=*. 
The highest temperature on record for the Missouri valley islll'^', 
recorded at Fort Sully, in southern Dakota. The lowest temperature for 
that section is 42 ^ below zero, at Fort Bennett, in south central Dakota, 
making the absolute range of temperature for the Missouri valley 153°. 
The third section, the extreme Northwest, has a highest temperature of 
107 ° , recorded at Fort Buford, Dakota, and a lowest temperature of 59 ° 
below zero, recorded at Pembina, Dakota; making the absolute range of 



24 

temj)erature for the extreme Northwest 166 ° . The highest temperature 
on record for northern Louisiana is 107 ^ recorded at Shreveport, and the 
highest on record for southern Louisiana is 97 ^ at New Orleans. The 
lowest temperature on record for northern Louisiana is 6 ° at Shreveport, 
and the lowest for southern Louisiana is 20 ° at New Orleans, making the 
absolute range of temperature for the northern part of the State 101 ° , 
and for the southern part 77 ° , the latter range being less than one half 
of the range of either of the three sections quoted. 

To compare the mean relative humidity of the various sections: 
From a record covering from 1870 to 1885, the mean annual relative 
humidity of the Upper Mississippi valley is computed to be 69 per cent , 
the mean for the Missouri valley is 69 per cent, the mean for the extreme 
Northwest is 74 per cent., and the mean for Louisiana is 71 per cent., 
being but two per cent., above the average for the two first-named and 
three per cent below the latter. The highest mean monthly during the 
year in Louisiana, is but 74 per cent, whereas the highest in either of the 
other sections is 91 per cent. 

The rainfall of the sections under consideration is as follows: The 
average annual for the Upper Mississippi valley is 39 inches; the greater 
part of it falling during the summer months. The average for the 
Missouri valley is 29 inches, the greater part of which falls in May, June 
and July. The average for the extreme Northwest is 21 inches, the 
majority of which falls during the summer. The average for Louisiana is 
60 inches, ranging from 4 to 6 inches for each month during the year. 

From the foregoing official records it is plain that there is no section 
east of the Rocky mountains that can compete with Louisiana in climate. 
If we have rivals, they alone exist in sections of Oregon and California. 

The following are extracts of reports from those states : 

The state of California has an average annual temperature ranging 
from 51 to 55 degrees on the coast, to 62 degrees in the interior, against a 
normal annual temperature for Louisiana of from 65° in the northern por- 
tion of the state to 68° in the southern portion. California has an average 
annual rainfall of from 11 inches at San Diego to 28 inches at Red Bluff. 
An average annu%l relative humidity of from 54 to 82 per cent — San Fran- 
cisco having an average of 75 per cent, and San Diego 73 per cent, against 
an average for Louisiana of 71 per cent. 

The highest temperature at Los Angeles, Cal., is 108°; at Red Bluff, 
110° ; at Sacramento, 106° ; and coast maximums ranging from 90° to 101°. 
At DavisvUle and Dunnigan, Cal., maximum temperature of 118® were re- 
corded. 

The lowest temperatures for that state range from 16 to 33 degrees, 
the highest minimums being reported from stations on the coast The 
lowest temperature recorded on the Louisiana coast is 34 degrees. 

Westerly winds prevail in California, blowing from the ocean. In 
Louisiana southerly winds prevail, blowing from the Gulf. 

In the matter of clear, fair and cloudy days, California has doubtless a 
greater amount of sunshine during the summer months, with almost a tota 
lack of rainfall. During the winter months fogs are very frequent in Cali- 
fornia. The rainfall in Louisiana is evenly distributed throughout the year 
with an abs«noe of the foggy dayg. 



"Climatically speaking the therapeutic area of souihern California is 
small. It is limited to those localities only which are directly influenced 
by the ocean breeze, and extends but a few miles inland. In the valleys 
back from the coast, the summer heat becomes unbearable, there is but 
slight vegetation, and good water is not easily procured. The winters are 
however mild and dry. Only a few inches of' rain falls annually, and out- 
door life is practicable." 

Oregon claims several distinct climates within its borders: On the 
coast the rainfall averages from 39 to 79 inches; in the Willamette valley 
from 41 to G7 inches; and in the remainder of the State from 9 to 35 inches 
annually. The rainy season begins about October 15th and ends about 
May 1st. Regarding the temperature, it is sufficient to state that the 
range in the interior of Oregon is from 22 below zero to 106 above. Kill- 
ing frosts occur on an average of 9 months during the year. 

Louisiana has but one climate, and that well defined. We have hot 
weather but we have also the cool Gulf breeze extending inland, reaching 
the extreme northern portion of the state jwhich has, however, a somewhat 
higher temperature than that recorded in the southern portion during the 
summer. The rainfall and moisture in the atmosphere are nearly the 
same, being slightly less north than south. The summers are long, but 
necessarily so for the crops that are grown. 

Louisiana's comparative immunity from killing frosts is graphically poi'- 
trayed on the small chart on the lower corner of the Weather Map. It will 
be seen that the extreme northern part of this state has the advantage of 
northern Florida in this particular, and that the southern part of Louisi- 
ana from xivoyelles parish to the. Gulf has no rival save the southern por- 
tion of Florida Peninsula. This is explainable by the fact that the 
majority of the cold-waves that sweep southward over the country during 
the winter season are deflected east of Louisiana, and for the following 
reason: The atmosphere moves in huge waves similar to water. The cold- 
wave is the base of the crest of this wave, and the hollow between the 
crests is the storm centre. A storm off the Texas coast and a cold-wave 
forming in the north-west are conditions suitable for a great fall in tempe- 
rature between those regions, since the air resting on the surface of the 
earth moves out from under a high pressure, flowing in the direction of a 
lower pressure, which in this case would mean cold nortiierly winds flow- 
ing from the northwest to Texas. But since all movements of the atnjos- 
phere have an eastward tendency, the storm that was in the Gulf yesterday 
will be found hundreds of miles to the eastward to day, and the cold-wave 
sweeping down from the northwest has had its attraction removed and the 
cold surface winds are now from the northwest. Another cause of 
the immunity we have from these cold-waves is that there is a wall of warm 
moist air overhanging the Gulf, extending over the interior of the State, 
and the intermingling of the mass of cold air from the north with this 
warm air is seldom accomplished before both masses have passed eastward 
out of range of the State. 

Another cause is that storms having their origin on the eastern Rocky 
Mountain slope have for an attraction the great lakes, since all storms will 
move toward a humid atmosphere and to where they have a clear sweep 
thus accounting for the great number of our cyclones moving out the St 
liftwrence valley. 



26 

It must not be understood from the foregoing tliat Louisiana lias no 
cold-waves, fc»r during the past winter (my first in tbe south) the tempera- 
ture in this city fell to '29° above zero; but while we escaped with that 
temperature, caused by a high pressure of air that swept down below a 
storm having its origin in Indiana, Florida on the same lat. had a tempera- 
ture lower than that recorded here." (Great Applause.) 

Note: The data from which the foregoing has been compiled are from signal service 
records covering the period from November 1, 1870 to January 1, 1885, and do not include 
the cold-wave of January 1886, when minimum temperatures of from 5 to 10 degrees below 
any previous record were reported from the majority of Southern and Eastern States. 

Poem of Welcome written especially for the occasion by "Pearl Rivers," 

was read with splendid effect by Hon. E. Howard McCaleb 
of New Orleans: 

come to the southland. 

Saxon and Norman, far over the sea; 
Ireland's oppressed, who long to be free; 
.Tlussians and Prussians, and Italy's sons, 
Fathers and mothers and dear little ones, 

Come to the Sou.thland and make it your home — 
Come to Louisiana. 

You of the East, who toil hard in hard fields, 
Reaping what poor earth so grudgingly yields, 
Removing hard stones and battling, gainst weeds, 
Working early and late to meet daily needs. 

Come to the Southland and make it your home — 
Come to Louisiana. 

You of the North, where the winters are cold, 
Where poor children suffer and early grow old, 
Where skilled men idle for lack of places. 
And Want writes its story on honest faces, 

Come to the Southland and make it your home — 
Come to Louisiana. 

[Great Applause.] 

You of the West, who are active and strong, 
Whose deeds have been told in story and song, 
Whose hearts are with us, whose commerce should be 
Always seeking this way to the sea, 

Come to the Southland and make it your home — 
Come to Louisiana. 

[Great Api^lause.] 

Honest and true men, from whatever lands. 
With brave and strong hearts and strong and true hands, 
With habits well grounded and virtues alive, 
Who want to make fortunes and willingly strive, 
Come to the Southland make it your home- 
Come to Louisiana. 

[Great Applause.] 



27 

Broad fields invite you, with waving grains, 
Eich fields invite you with sweetest canes. 
Lowlands invite you with rices snow-white, 
Fish in the waters and game within sight. 

Then come to the Southland, make it your home- 
Come to Louisiana. 

Cotton fields call you, and flowers in bloom. 
Here is plenty for all; we will gladly make room. 
Press and pialpit and warm hearts will greet you. 
Smiles of fair ones and hand clasps will meet you. 
So come to the Southland, make it your home- 
Come to Louisiana. 

(Long and Hearty Applause.) 

It was moved by Kev. Mr. R. F. Patterson that the Convention adjourn 
until 7:30 o'clock to give the delegates time to rest and to give the citizens 
a chance to be present at the deliberations of the Convention, which their 
business during the day prevented. 

Prof, S. A. Knapp, the President, on behalf of the northern men, 
said before putting the motion he wanted to thank the citizens of New 
Orleans for the glittering array of oratory, poetry and knowledge that 
had been presented in welcoming the Convention. He invited the citizens 
of New Orleans to be on hand in the evening to listen to the "Yankee 
spouters." The motion was put and carried. 

Evening Session. 

At 7 :30 o'clock the Convention reassembled, the audience having been 
considerably augmented in numbers by the addition of quite a large 
number of residents of this city who had been unable, on account of bus- 
iness to attend the day session. 

Pkof. S. A. Knapp, 

called the Convention to order in the following words: 

"The Convention will please come to order. We have allowed the 
hour to pass beyond the time stated. It has been thought best that there 
should be a few responses, brief responses, made to the gentlemen from 
the South who addressed this Convention and gave to us such a cordial 
welcome this morning. We will not depart from the regular programme 
further than these short responses. In A'iew of that fact Judge J. M. 
Howell, has consented to reply from the legal standpoint. So far as we 
from the far North are concerned Chief-Justice Bermudez, has fully satis- 
fied our questionings on that point. I now have the honor to introduce 
to you Judge Howell." 

Hon. J. M. Howell, 

of Lafourche, La., formerly of Missouri, spoke as follows: 

"Ladies and Gentlemen of the Convention: — Only a few minutes since 
I was informed that I was expected to say something in reply to the noble 
Chief-Justice, who welcomed us this morning, as a representative of the 
Supreme Bench of Louisiana, I am totally unprepared to reply to those 
sentimente. I am a Western man, and was raised in the State of Missouri, 



28 

I have lived in the States of California, Texas and Louisiana, and in all 
three of these States I have had something to do with the law. 

During my residence in Louisiana of 25 years, from personal observa- 
tion, I find that the laws are as fairly and impartially administered here, as 
in any other State in the Union, (applause) My observations lead me to 
believe that without regard to locality, without regard to race, sex or for- 
mer conditions, that nowhere in the United States are the laws more 
impartially administered than here in this State. (Applause). 

We have, especially in southwestern Louisiana, a law abiding popula- 
tion. I speak of the Creole population of this State. I have lived among 
western men in California, have travelled over every section of this Union, 
and from all my experience I undertake to say in the presence of you gen- 
tlemen, that no people on the face of the earth have a greater sense of jus- 
tice and magnanmity than the Creole population of Louisiana. (Apjolause 
and Cheers. ) 

Now this is a kind of experience meeting and I dont expect any gen- 
tleman here to-night, will make a lengthy address. I am sure I will not, 
as I was called upon to speak on this occasion without any preparation 
whatever, but I can say without fear of contradiction, that so far as health 
is concerned, so far as productiveness of soil, no State in the Union is 
superior to Louisiana. (Applause.) 

I have raised a family here, in this State, three sons, and three daugh- 
ters, and eleven grand children, and but one death has occurred in the 
family. We passed through the epidemic of 1878, we were all subject to 
the disease, most of us had it, and we all came out, unscathed There is 
no other State in the Union where the mortality is less than here in south- 
western Louisiana, and I am glad to see that the tide of immigration has 
turned this way. I have passed through all of the Westei-n Territories, 
and know something about their toj^ography and productiveness, and I as- 
sure you, that there are places here in Louisiana where five (5) acres of 
land will produce more than a county in the Northwest. Lands too are 
much cheaper here than in Idaho, New Mexico, and other W^estern Terri- 
tories. We dt) not appreciate the country which we live in as an Iowa 
gentleman told me, that we do not know what our lands are capable of 
producing, that he had crossed the Continent, and found this more fruit- 
ful than any other portion of the United States; We have been so suc- 
cessful in our undertakings, and with so little exertion, that we have fallen 
behind in the great race that is going on in this country. 

I approve of planting Colonies in Louisiana, and hope that this system 
will continue until it takes in the whole State of Louisiana. I thank you 
gentlemen for your kind attention. 

Judge Howell was frequently applauded during the delivery of his 
remarks. 

Prof. S. A. Kxapp, 

replied to the address of State Superintendent of Public Education Breaux. 
He spoke as follows: 

"Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: — I would gladly have been 
excused from this duty, only it would have disturbed the pro- 
gramme and I therefore, consented to make a few remarks, lam prepared 



29 

to believe most anything that can be said about Louisiana. From my 
own standpoint, it is the most remarkable piece of geography on the face 
of the earth. No other portion, as a unity, compares to it. (Applause.) 

It would be necessary to take the prairies of Iowa, the I'ugged timber 
lands of Maine, and the entire delta of the Nile, twist them all together 
and thrust through them the Amazon to prodiace another Louisiana. 
(Loud cheers and Applause ) 

Now what I want is this : that that position of geography which is 
exceptional in its nature, superlative in its character, and marvelous in its 
productions, shall produce men and women that are not unworthy of 
the soil upon which they tread. (Hearty Applause). It was my dream 
in earlier life, that man, by effort should attain a perfection of training 
that every muscle of his body and every fiber would be perfectly trained 
to its offices, and that even his heart-heaU would respond to the law and 
order of a cultured being, that he would thus become a mental and physi- 
cal unit, placed squarely on his feet, erect, strong, healthful, energetic, a 
moral force, — not a weakling, — but a power in the land. Nowhere, M'here 
I have gathered with men of intellect and thought have I met more cul- 
tured gentlemen than in the assemblies of Louisiana. (Applause). I 
have admired them for their breadth, for their depth', for their thorough- 
ness, and their culture, but this is not the point to which I wish to speak 
to-night, a cultured few was the glory of the Greek. 

The great question is the education of the masses — that every man 
and every woman shall be fully trained and perfectly educated. No 
fortress can be stronger than its weakest point. No people can be stronger 
than the masses that make up that people. What makes a nation tirm, great 
and wise, is to have education percolate all through the people, filtered 
through the very beings of the lowest, so that when we are seeking for 
men of power and men of thought, they may be drawn from the com- 
munity. It makes me Jshrink when I see that my neighbor's boys, and 
my own boys cannot be selected for these favored places. Why? Be- 
cause they have not been sufficiently educated. I want to see educa- 
tion in this grand country correspond to the country. If it does not, it is 
because we are unworthy of the country in which we reside. (Applause). 

Now what must be done ? In the first place we need organization 
and co-operation. It is impossible to carry out a broad education by 
employing teachers to instruct our separate families, and it is not the best 
way to instruct. In order to make a strong boy, you must thrust intellect 
against intellect, brain must rub against brain, force must meet force. 
It is the old process of the Greeks and the secret of their strength, only 
it is brain work now, and not muscle as of yore. We must bring the 
boys and girls together in groups so that they may be matched against 
the best intellects of the land, as they ascend from the common school 
through the gymnasium and the college into the university. Place the 
poor boy who has had no antecedent sidvantages, beside a boy who has 
had all the opportunities that wealth can give and the poor boy will try to 
measure up somehow, just as it made the Vermonter's grow tall and slim, 
tfetting up every morning to see if they could not peep over the top of the 
Green Moua tains. (Applause.) 

In the great northwest few^ of the now foremost people started with 
much in hfe. They came from the homes of the small farmers, and lenrned 
to toil wk«>n illa«7 were children. If they have accuuiulated great wealth, 



30 

it is due to their own energy. If they grace the Halls of Jjegislation at 
Washington and sit beside the greatest senator and are his peer, to what 
do they owe it? 

To the Institutions of the common school, the college and their own 
brave hearts and matchless courage. (Applause.) 

This is a gr^at country for raising crops of this or that product, 
but that other crop which overtops all others is the boj's and girls it pro- 
duces. Its whole product is poor and worthless trash unless its men and 
women are of the grandest kind. (Hearty Applause.) 

All roads in a former day centred in Rome, all forces, in this modern 
era, center in the schoolhouse. All forces should go to make pure, strong 
young men, and anything that tends to distract their attention, to debilit- 
ate or enfeeble their minds, must be eliminated and we must bring to bear 
on this training all that help build a higher life, because education, in this 
broad sense, is everything, and co-operative. A few cannot be great when 
many are weak ; a few cannot be wise and pure when the masses are the 
reverse. 

We must make our boys and girls high-minded, pure, virtuous, cour- 
teous, and energetic,' teach them to look to high and grand things, teach 
them the possibilities of life. 

I see our posterity in that great future, when the forces of nature are 
wonderfully aggregated aud intensified, some will rise and others will fall 
in the struggle of the nations, but upon the whole, the star of our people 
will be in the ascendant. The elements of a great nation are upon this Gulf 
Coast. 

If we are worthy of our position and our age the future will find upon 
this coast, a people great and strong like the Romans, cultured like the 
Greeks, and with all the enthusiasm and fire of the ancient Saracens. 

The question is not whether we can raise fifty bushels of corn to the 
acre, or cotton by the square mile, or whether we can make money by the 
thousands, but, can we produce here in these days of social decay, grand 
young men, pure, beautiful and noble women." (Long and Hearty Ap- 
plause.) 

Rev. R. F. Patterson, 
of Baton Rouge, formerly of Charleston Illinois, responded to the wel- 
come address of Rev. Dr. Palmer, he spoke as follows : 

"Ladiei< and Gentlemen: — It is certainly a very great surprise to me 
that I should address you, for until I heard my name called, I was not 
aware that I was expected to respond to the very able address of Dr. 
Palmer. It certainly is a compliment from the Convention to me, but 
whether the northern citizens will be complimented when I am through 
is another question. 

It was about fifteen years ago, at three o'clock in the morning on a 
day not very far from the present, that I landed at Baton Rouge. All the 
testimonials I had about my person was a letter of introduction from the Pre- 
sident of the 1st National Bank of Charleston, 111., to Mr. W. L. Larimore, 
then a resident of East Baton Rouge, w-ho had been raised on adjoining 
farms, in Kentuck3^ They had not seen each other for probabh^ 80 years. 
I presented this letter to the said Mr. Larimore, who received my wife 



31 

and me in his house as jj^uests. On the day following he drove me 
around in his buggy, and introduced me to the elders of the Presbyterian 
Church, who in less than a half an hour after becoming acquainted 
invited me to fill the pulpit of the Presbyterian Church on the following 
sabbath. This was on Thursday morning, I said "I will be very glad to do 
so, if it be your pleasure." I was next introduced'to the Kev. Mr. Goodwin 
Pastor of the Methodist Church. He said to me: "Brother Patterson 
you must come and preach the Gospel at our church on next sabbath. 
It is communion day, and we would like to have you present." "I said I 
would like to be with you, but have already promised the Presbyte- 
rian Church. "Well then, he; said, I will invite all the Presbyterians to 
come to my church so that all may hear you." I accepted the sugges- 
tion, and the church was crowded to hear the Illinois preacher. 

I was afterwards placed in charge of the Presbyterian church, with 
Evangelistic privileges. I was made Pastor of the church, within one 
year after I landed at Baton Ptouge. After serving as Pastor for two 
and a half years, was appointed EvangeHst at large for the Presbytery of 
Louisiana. I went down on the Atchafalaya after the over-flow of 1874, 
and on my very first visit to that place, was met by men, not church- 
members, who said, "Mr. Patterson make this your home; here is a horse 
and a saddle, and here is a buggy," and I have experienced for the last 
15 years during my residence here, this same expression of welcome from 
both people and ministry. 

To-day, I have a nephew of Jefferson Davis, amongst my elders, who 
is one of my most cordial supporters. 

Now I have one anecdote I wish to present here as an illustration of 
the healthfulness of this State. Four representative citizens from Baton 
Rouge made a tour to the Western States and turned up in the neighbor- 
hood of Georgetown, Col. On the morning after their arrival while in- 
specting the place, th(*y found they were regarded with great curiosity and 
no little susj^icion. One man, after looking at them from first one point 
and then another, finally said "what business have you gentlemen here, 
are you seeking interest in the mines?" "No,, was the reply. "Well what 
did you come for '?" "Seeking our health" replied one of the gentlemen 
(they each weighed about 200 pounds). The westerner looking at them 
very earnestly for a few minutes finally said "Great Csesar, Texas 
and Arkansas, how many more such sick men have you down in j'our 
country ?" (Cheers and Applause). 

The next speaker was 

Mb. S. L. Carey 
from Manchester, Iowa, now oi Jennings, La., who spoke as follows: 

"Ladies and Gentlemen: — If there is anything more pleasing, or that 
could induce me to say a few words of welcome to-night, it would be the 
fact that I have been the humble means of bringing down so many of 
these faces I see present from Iowa, Illinois and the great North-west, to 
this South land of Louisiana. And I will say that we think we have struck 
the veritable garden of Eden. 

The surveyor (Mr. M. Freeman) says that in prospecting and digging 
around for corner stakes he has come across some of the roots of the old 



. 32 

apple tree. He may be wrong about that fori often think that the forbid- 
den fruit must have been a green persimmon the way it has puckered up 
our lives and character. (Api:)lause.) 

About five years ago I came from Iowa to the State of Louisiana. 
Since then hundreds of people have come, and have been made welcome. 
About a year ago the good Governor of this great State of Louisiana 
(Samuel Douglas McEnery) tendered us in a speech a most hearty welcome 
to this State, nnrl evt-r since then, we have felt entirely at home. 

We have come here not to buy you out, but to identify our interest 
with yours, to be "flesh of j-our flesh, and bone of your bone." 

This immigration movement started in a small way. We were but a 
handful at first. But we have grown large and strong by degrees, and 
not all at once. We have had difficulties to undergo, not from your boun- 
teous soil or genial climate, or from any wabt of welcome, but from our 
own ignorance, especially of the conditions of the soil. We were told 
that we had settled in the poorest part of Louisiana; but I can show you 
corn grown down in Calcasieu Parish, the like of which was not seen at 
the Exposition, and no fertilizer was used save a little bay and straw. 

I think we have there between 500 and GOO families in Calcasieu, and 
the prospect is that. we will send to market, this year, 10,000 tons of hay. 

The increase of the value of rice is over $100,000. The increase of 
property values in our parish has been about $3,000,000. 

If you want iuimigj ation you must ask the Railroads for help. ■ We 
have asked them, and they say we can have those from the North-west, and 
that they are working with us, and the rates of freight charged by these 
Railroads are by no means excessive. 

River and water communication presents a competition which effec- 
tively keeps rates low. 

There is one thing I would like to say about this Immigration and 
that is those coming to us will be loyal to our State, to the government 
and the people and I will close with this statement "that there is no anar- 
chy in this immigration." (Cheers and Applause.) 

The following resolution, was then offered and was adopted. 

"Resolved, That there be appointed a committee on resolutions to 
consist of thirteen members, two members of which shall be nominated 
for appointment by the delegates from each congressional district and one 
member appointed at large by the president of the Convention. All reso- 
lutions introduced shall be read and referred to the said committee > 
without . debate." 

The next address was by 

Prof. S. Decatuk Lucas, 

of Delhi, Richland Parish, La., formerly of Afton Iowa, who addressed the 

convention as follows: 

*'Mr. Presided, Ladies and Gentlemeyi: 

While yet in my youth, even as far back as my childhood, I remember 
distinctly to have heard these memorable words used first by the immortal 
Greely: "young man Go West." Considering the feeling then existing be- 
tween the North and South, what other advice conld he give ? 

But now that cheap western homes and valuable goverment lands 
may not be had east of the Rockies, the flood of immigration is turning 
in another course, and has already begun to pour down upon our south- 



ern shores. This stream under proper influences will continue to flow 
in upon us until our broad acres, now lying idle and untilled, will 
literally groan beneath the burden of their crops. 

The object of our meeting here to-day is two-fold: First, to extend 
to our friends in the North a most hearty invitation to our glorious State, 
and assure them a cordial welcome and hospitable reception by the people 
of the South : Second, to demonstrate to them the numberless advantages 
and unlimited resources of our favored land. (Applause). 

In respect to the first of these objects, we can unqualifiedly say that 
never have we received a warmer welcome, nor have we ever been treated 
with more kindness and respect than by the peoj^le with whom we have 
chosen to make our 'homes. The elaborate decoration that we see about 
us to-day, these grand displays ^nd adornments express far more to us 
than mere show or barren ornament. The State of Louisiana extends a 
hearty invitation to every man and woman in Europe and America of 
whatever nationality or creed, to come within her borders. The invitation 
is as broad as earth; and the attractions of her climate, the fertility of 
her soil, the almost limitless range of her productions and sources of 
prosperity commend her to all who are seeking to bettor their condition 
in health or possessions. 

In speaking of the attractions that are offered to our northern bretliern, 
I shall confine my remarks to that portion of the State known as Notth 
Louisiana. Here the most fastidious may find conditions suited to their 
tastes and requirements. With our broad expanses of alluvial lands on the 
east, with our elevated "Bluff Formation" between the Macon and Ouachita, 
and our famous Red Lands on the West, we can offer a greater diversity 
of soil than can be found within the same extent in any other of the 
United States. In the alluvial districts we find a soil deep, rich and 
porous; absorbing water freely, and absolutely exempt from the parching 
drought. An adequate levee system fully protects it from over-flow, and 
with an efficient drainage to the westward, a failure of corps is a considera- 
tion that gives the planter no uneasiness whatever. 

The Bluff region west of the Macon is practically above over-flow and 
generally level. In this we find the soil lighter than in the alluvial portion 
but highly productive and adopted to raising all crops peculiar to the 
South. West of the Ouachita the characteristic features are radically 
changed; instead of the broad level tracts we find the surface broken by 
a succession of low hills, the monotony of which is occasionally relieved 
by fertile valleys and level plains. The soil here is very fertile, admirably 
adapted to grazing, and the production of all kinds of grains, cotton and 
tobacco. In fact this portion of the State is more suitable to farming than 
planting. 

The health and climate of a community are two of the most important 
considerations, and in these respects North Louisiana can offer inducements, 
equalled perhaps by but two other States in the Union. We can boast an 
average temperature for the three summer months of 79 ° with a maxi- 
mum of 98 ' ; while the average winter temperature is 52 ° with a 
minimum of 18 ° : This gives us a range of only 80 ° , while that of 
Northern Iowa is fully 160 ° . The great modifier of this southern clime 
is the Gulf breeze which may be felt almost daily from morning until 
night. Our climate is a happy medium between the tropics and the frigid 
North, invigorated by daily recurring breezes and tempered and protected 



3-1 

against sudden changes, by the benign influences of the ocean current 
which sweeps along our southern shores. Louisiana is a favorable climate 
from the first of January to the last of December; in fact it is harder to 
brave the summer temperature of Minnesota, than that of Liouisiana. No 
scorching heat, nor hot parching winds; neither marrow- stiffening blizzards; 
but all the year, the baltny, reviving breath from the Gulf Stream. A case 
of sunstroke was never known, and ice an inch in thickness is rarely seen. 
White settlers find no difficulty whatever in performing field labor at all 
seasons of the year, and experience has taught us that the man who labors 
with regularity and moderation, has better health than he who works only 
in case of emergency. Perhaps no stronger argument in favor of the 
health of this country can be presented than to call youi attention to the 
avoirdupois now standing in your presence, and I only regret that my 
esteemed wife is not present to add her testimony to the already weighty 
evidence, and in this connection, allow me to add that our health has been 
materially improved since coming into this State. (Applause.) 

How an adverse report in regard to the healthf ulness of Louisiana was 
started, is beyond my comprehension. It was surely not originated from 
any authentic or official statement. But that such a report is circulated 
is quite evident. Not a week since, a tall, lean, stoop-shouldered individual, 
with pinched face and hollow chest, stepped off the train, while it was 
stopping for dinner at Delhi, and being attracted by the generally healthy 
appearance of a group of men near the Post Office; inquired: "Do yon 
live here in Louisiana ?" we assured him that we enjoyed that privilege. 
"And have you been long in this State ?" he asked. "Some as long as 20 
years." "Said he, I have been living in Miss., and hearing of the unhealthful- 
ness of this country, almost feared to pass through on my way to Texas 
for my health, but since crossing the Mississippi river, I have seen more 
strong and hearty men than I dare hope to find in Texas." (Applause) . 

But the great object of immigration is the bettering of ones financial 
condition. The first querry that absorbs the attention of the man who 
contemplates moving is, what are the financial prospects, what are the 
opportunities for making a living, and what for accumulating wealth. 

Generally the emigrant is an agriculturalist. There is no staple crop 
in all the Northern States that will yield as large returns to the acre, as 
can be realized on cotton in the alluvial distz'icts of Louisiana, andthis pro- 
duct lua}^ be raised with one half the investment in horses and machinery 
that is required to run a northern farm. T'is true the yield of corn is not 
so abundant as in some other States, but it is also true that the demand for 
home, consumption is as limited as the supply. Vegetables of all kinds, and 
fruits of almost every variety grow in the greatest profusion and luxuriance. 

Another employment that will in the near future occupy the attention, 
of thousands of our inhabitants and furnish investment for millions of 
capital, is the raising of stock. In this I may safely say that we have 
facilities which will enable us successfully to compete with any country on 
the face of the globe. (Appaulse.) 

Native grasses and cane brakes furnish abundance of wholesome and 
substantial pasturage winter and summer, cattle are always ready for mar- 
ket after January and come from the range in the early spring, in a condi- 
tion to command the highest market price, With pasturage as free as the 
open air and no expense whatever except the cost of the original herd,. 



what except the want of sufficient railways to bring the cost of transporta- 
tion to the larger markets within a reasonable limit, can prevent us from 
attaining the highest rank in the production of this staple commodity. 

There is no reason whatever that a man should not under any circum- 
stances, prosper in a country like this. Take for example a man without 
caj^ital. In obtaining land he has three options ; of leasing a partially 
improved tract, of entering a homestead, or of purchasing at a low price 
and on easy terms. If he makes any preparation whatever for a crop, any 
merchant in his vicinity is ready to supply him until fall. This will enable 
him to make a crop with only sufficient outlay to get a light plow and an 
ordinary mule. Land may be had at any price from $1.00 to $10.00 per 
acre. With the opportunities just mentioned he can make a living for 
his family with perfect ease; but had he sufficient means tofuruish a farm 
of 160 acres he would with proper attention, make a handsome profit 

I would be committing an unpardonable neglect against our noble 
State, not to bring to the notice of the pubHc the unbounded value of her 
natural resources. Of these, the most available are her vast forests of 
timber consisting as they do of great varieties of oak, pine, cypi^ess, gum, 
hickory and magnolia, they will readily furnish material for building and 
manufacturing purposes, for generations to come. Here we see the prince- 
ly cypress and the gigantic oak towering to the heavens; the majestic pine 
lifting its stately head to the skies and bathing its branches in the clouds, 
all awaiting the woodsman's axe to convert them into sources of untold mil- 
lions. As an evidence of the comparative importance of the timber growth 
of Louisiana, a Michigan lumberman, in a tour of inspection through her 
forests was heard to say, that never in all his experience had such an 
infinite wealth of timber, coupled with such natural accessibility, come 
within his notice. He has recently demonstrated the sincerity of his asser- 
tion by purchasing 20,000 acres and preparing to convert it into market- 
able form. 

The query so frequently heard throughout the Northern States as to 
where the timber for building and manufacturing purposes would in the 
future be obtained, is readily answered by a survey of the illimitable 
resources within our boundaries. 

The wealth that lies burnied beneath our soil though yet only partially 
developed is too vast to be overlooked. This consists of rich deposits of 
coal and iron, found in such quantities and such proximity as to cause 
each to enhance the value of the other. 

Socially, North Louisiana is all that could be wished. Public schools 
are sustained from three to five months in every community where there 
can be had an attendance of 10 pupils, and private schools are kept up 
the remainder of the year. There are many churches of all denominations, 
supported by a people, anxious for the dissemination of the gospel. Our 
political institutions have under gone systematic reorganization and 
freedom of the ballot is an assured fact. So that in this regard there need 
be no hesitancy whatever on the part of the man who comtemplates com- 
ing South. And now, dear friends, it lies within your power, not only 
materially to increase your own prospects, but also to benefit the great 
concourse of humanity which yearly perishes from cold or is prostrated by 
the summer heat in the vain attempt to eke out a miserable existence from 
the reluctant and oft uncertain soil". (Long Applause.) 



36 

Hon. Robert Mullengeb, 

of Houma, Terrebonne Parish, La., formerly of Springfield, Dakota, who 

spoke as follows: 

"Ladies and Gentlemen: — I was reminded of a story I once read when 
I was a bo}', of a certain oak tree which stood in a certain village green, 
spreading its great branches wide and high until they reached up almost 
to the heavens. The traveller coming by would stop to rest beneath its 
shade, and listen to the songs of the birds perched high up in its branches. 
It is stated that many stopped at that tree to count its number of branches, 
and admire its beauty, while there may have been trees larger in circum- 
ference, none reached higher up in the heavens; while there may have 
been trees with larger number of branches none furnished more cooling, 
restful shelter, and this in relation to Louisiana. 

While there are States that may boast of a larger variety of products 
and may in some respects excel our State (I do not know where such States 
ate) that taken for its size, for its climate or its healthfulness, for its pro- 
ducts or resources, I undertake to say that there is no finer State in the 
Union than the State of Louisiana. (Loud Cheers and Applause). But if 
I remember rightly, the locality where I am, Terrebonne, means "Good 
land," and it is rightly named. In its soil and climate it is excellent, and 
in its production it cannot be excelled by any Parish in this State or any 
other State. If we take that king of crops — the sugar-cane — I can show 
you fields of cane to-day whose owners will tell you, that the yield they 
have frequently had, and expect to get, is 40 tons per acre. Just to think 
of it. Forty tons means three hogsheads of sugar, which sells from $180 
to $200 for the three hogsheads, and that acre of sugar is cultivated with as 
little labor as one acre of corn in the North. Corn is not raised as largely as 
in other parishes, but as fine corn is raised in Terrebonne as I have ever seen 
anywhere. The rice crops where raised is good; and for what is termed 
"truck farming," I know of no better place than the parish of Terrebonne. 
In the way of fruits there has been no special effort made. A few fig trees, 
some orangs trees, some graj^e vines, some Japan-plum trees and a few 
other varieties. These trees are jolanted and then left to take care of them- 
selves. Like the old Irish lady who said when she stood at the door and 
looked into the room where the sick minister was lying at the point of 
death, "If he lives, he lives; if he dies, he dies — so with the fruits, "if they 
live, they live; if they die, they die." (Loud Applause). And yet in 
examining there, I have seen some of the finest grape-vines I ever set eyes 
on. I saw one grape-vine there (it looked like the Clinton) strong, vigor- 
ous and hardy, its foliage very dense, but its bunches were about four (4) 
times as large as the Clinton, and there were fully 3000 bunches of grapes 
upon that one vine. I believe that the grape culture Avith proper cultivation 
can be made a decided success in Terrebonne. But we have in connection 
with this our natural resources. 

Our sea shore along the Gi-ulf coast abounds with red fish, sheej)head, 
Spanish mackerel, green and sjieckled trout in unlimited quanties, green 
turtle, large terrapins, and oysters in untold millions. 

In relation to health, take a good look at me, I am a fair specimen, 
strong and hearty. I have lived in England, I have lived on the Ocean, 
in Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, in Iowa and Dakota, some in Virginia, 
some in Alabama, and never in any one of those States have I been ais 



healthy as doAvn in Terrebonne. There is of course, some sickness there, 
for some people everytime they have a pain in their little finger have to 
send for the Doctor, but yon find such people everywhere. I undertake to say, 
that for the number of people that are living in the Parish of Terrebonne, 
that there is as little sickness as any place where I have ever lived. 

The climate certainly is magnificent. I heard one gentleman say that 
he believed there was more cUmate in Terrebonne to the square inch than 
anywhere else. 

In the North, where I have lived the temperature will drop 50° with- 
in five minutes. I am not exaggerating. I was in Dakota during that 
memorable blizzard of last winter. Which occured on January the 12th 
when there was a change of 70° from 12 noon on the 12 to 6 a. m. on the 
13th. We have nothing of that kind here. The time is not far distant, 
even within the next decade when Louisiana shall stand in the front rank 
asserting her birthright, as one of the noblest, grandest and most glorious 
States. ( Applause. ) 

I think I have spoken long enough I thank you ladies and gentlemen, 
for your kind attention." (Long and Hearty Applause.) 

The next address was by 

Rev. R. F. Patterson, 

of Baton Rouge, La., formerly of Charleston, Illinois, who read as follows: 

About the Parishes of East and West Baton Rouge. 
"West Baton Rouge Parish, lies on the west side of the Mississippi 
River, immediately west of the city of Baton Rouge, extending up and 
down the river. The land is alluvial and protected by levees. From the 
river front back, from a mile and a half to three miles the land is dry and 
practically inexhaustible. Back of this belt, the land is lower and inter- 
spersed with swamps, where grow large groves of cypress, which, as all 
know, yields the finest lumber known. 

The staple crops of the dry lands are cane, cotton and corn. All veg- 
etables are produced abundanlly for home consumption. As yet but little 
effort has been made to raise them for shipment. In the lower lands rice 
is the principal crop. There is much land at present on this side of the river 
uncultivated, which, when protected by suitable levees, will no doubt be 
utiHzed. 

East Baton Rouge is largely high land. At the city of Baton Rouge, 
the land suddently rises about forty feet above high water mark. This is 
the first high laud from the Gulf. Here a beautiful table-land begins, 
extending east and north until the Parishes of Ijivingston, St. Helena, 
Tangipahoa, East and West Feliciana are embraced. The natural beauty 
of this district of country is rarely surpassed. The surface is undulating 
and where not in cultivation, is covered by beautiful groves of Magnolia, 
Beech, Holly, Rod Gum and almost every variety of Oak. Much of this 
timber will be eventually valuable for lumber. In Livingston and Tangipa- 
hoa an excellant quality of Pine abounds. 

The soil of this table land is fertile being mixed loam — clay sub-soil. 
It readily responds to fertilizers and retains their value with wonderful 
tenacity. This land, especially in East Baton Rouge Parish, grows cane, 
corn, cotton, as staple crops. There has been produced from 3 to 4 thou! 



•and pounds of sugar to the acre. Cotton j-ields from ^ to 2 bales per 
acre, results depending largely upon cultivation. All vegetables do ^ve]l. 
Ii'ish p(>tatoes yield two crops a year. Bed Rust Proof Oats do esptcially 
■well — yielding from 20 to 50 bushels per acre. — They are sown in October 
and harvested in May. — Then a good crop of hay may be gathered from 
the ground iu time to sow another crop of oats in the Fall. By following 
the oats with cow peas, which makes elegant hay, the same ground may be 
Bown in oats indefinitely. 

Many beautiful clear streams of water traverse this portion of country, 
generally flowing in a southern direction. These abound iu fish and in 
winter migrating fowls are found in abundance. 

These streams and their tributaries give abundance of pure water, and 
thus make this section especially attractive to stock-raisers. As yet little 
has been done in this line except with the common native stock. 

It would be supposed that such a country would be healthy, — and so its 
history proves. There are no prevailing diseases. It ispecuhirl}- free from 
throat and lung diseases, and a genuine case of Typhoid Fever is rarely 
found. 

I have been living in the Parish of East Baton Rouge for fifteen j-ears 
and have not paid a doctors' bill for myself during that time, and only on 
two occasions was a phj'sician called for members of my family, — except in 
accidental cases — these were cases of billious fever, which yielded readily 
to treatment. 

I have lived in Miaraa Valley, in the State of Ohio, in Central Indiana, 
and on the prairies of Illinois, and I have no hesitation in saying that the 
table lands of Baton Rouge are more healthy than the above named 
States. (Applause). 

Since living in the State I have done a good deal of missionary work, 
and have not missed a single appointment from personal illness. 

While in Charleston 111., my wife was a victim of the terrible combina- 
tion of Asthma, Pleurisy and Neuralgia. Her physician said she could not 
survive another winter in that climate. For years she has hnd no symptoms 
of the above named troubles and although not vigorous is able to look well 
to the ways of her house-hold. Justice demands that we bear testimony to 
the healthfulness of the locality. Dr. R. H. Day one of the oldest physicians 
of Baton Rouge, remarked to me a few days ago. "I have practiced medi- 
cine in Maryland, 111. and Arkansas. I have been practicing here for 35 
years and I do not hesitate to say that this is the healthiest country I ever 
saw. 

The physician in charge at the State University and A. & M. College at 
Baton Rouge in his annual report to the Board of Supervisors says. From 
a careful analysis of the reports of the entire Union, that Baton Rouge has 
the best Health reccord of all the Posts in the South West. W^ith Industry, 
Intelligence and Piety I see no reason why East Baton Rouge and its 
surrounding Parishes should not soon become a Nineteenth Century Gar- 
den of Eden." (Great Applause.) 

President Knapp then read invitations from the Chamber of Commerce 
and exchanges, and on motion of Mr. Cary the invitations were accepted 
with thanke. 



'*Mr. President Ladies and Gentlemen: 

Having been requested by Col. Geo. Moorman, President of the State 
Immigration Association, to contribute my mite toward the success of a 
Convention of Northern men, to be heM in New Orleans, for the purpose of 
inducing immigration, I wish, after careful investigation to submit the 
following statistics: 

Persons intending to migrate to any section, invariably ask, "What 
kind of a climate have you and what degree of health do your people enjoy '?" 

I have compiled the following statistics which illustrate most fully the 
healthfulness of Louisiana. I have selected twenty of the diseases that are 
most common, with which phj'^sicians have most to deal, and from which our 
mortality can most certainly be demonstrated. I also place after the per- 
centage a word or number, indicating the position Louisiana holds compared 
with other States, which number extends from one to six. 

■nTaPAOT? Percent per Compared 

DISEASE. jQPg'' Position. 

Scarlet Fever. ." 6 First. 

Enteric or Typhoid Fever 32 Secoud- 

Malarial Fever 55 Fourth. 

Diphtheria 6 First. 

Croup 12 First. 

Diarrhoea 41 Third. 

Old Age 13 Third. 

Whooping Cough 20 First. 

Measles 7 First. 

Erysipelas 8 First. 

Pneumonia 110 Third. 

Bronchitis 11 First. 

Pleurisy , 3 ......... '"'irst. 

Peritonitis 3 First. 

Apoplexy 9 First. 

Of the Urinary Organs 7 First. 

Heart Disease 20 • • ' ' Second. 

Cancer 10 Firfet. 

Child Birth 18 Second. 

Still Born .18 Second. 

Average mortality 20 First. 

MOKTALITV BY STATES. per 1000 

STATE. MORTALITY. 

New York. ...•••• 40 

-New Jersey 32 

Virginia 32 

Tennessee 33 

New Mexico 39 

Ohio 40 

Indiana 41 

Massachusetts 37 

Maryland 36 

North Carolina 31 

Sonth Carolina 31 

Georgia 30 



^9 



Mr. Cart 

then moved that when the convention adjourns that it adjourn until 10 
o'clock next morning. 

It was suggested that the several members on the Committee of Reso- 
lutions be requested to meet in the morning in the ante-room at 9:45 about 15 
minutes before the assembling of the Convention in order that they might or- 
ganize and get at their work, so as to detain the Convention as short a time 
as possible. 

Both motions were seconded and adopted and the meeting stood ad- 
joined until the next morning at 10 o'clock. 



SECOND DAY'S PROCEEDINGS, (condensed.) 

The Convention of former citizens of Northern, Western and Middle 
States, now residents of Louisiana, reassembled, pursuant to adjournment, at 
Grunewald Hall, at 10 o'clock, on Wednesday morning. There was a full 
ftttendance of delegates, and the lobby was crowded with interested 
spectators. 

President Knapp called the convention to order shortly after 10 o'clock. 
He remarked: 

"In the regular order the reading of the minutes would be the first 
thing this morning, but as the proceedings have been so fully reported in 
the newspapers, unless there is objection, it might be as well to dispense 
with the reading of them." Motion was seconded and carried. 

Mr. F. M. Welsh made a motion to suspend the regular order and con- 
Tert the Convention into 

AN EXPERIENCE MEETING, 

wherein the various members should relate their experiences in Louisiana 
and tell how the climate agreed with them and the health they enjoyed. This 
was duly seconded, but Hon. O. B. San sum opposed it in so far as the suspen- 
sion of the regular order was concerned, suggesting that the experiences 
could be detailed after the programme had been carried out. 

Capt. P. Butler coincided with the last speaker. 

President Knapp, in reply to the question, stated that it would require 
about eight hours to get through the programme as there were about four- 
teen speakers present and three or four addresses to be read. 

Mr. Sansum thought that to suspend the programme would be unfair 
to such sections of Louisiana as had not been represented by speakers char- 
ged with describing those sections of the state. 

The matter being submitted to a vote, the programme was ordered 
carried out. 

The first address in the morning was by 

Dr. J. D. Graybill, * 

of Shreveport, La., formerly of Akron, Ohio, which is as follows: 



40 

^^Mr. President Ladies and Gentlemen: 

Having been requested by Col. Geo. Moorman, President of the State 
Immigration Association, to contribute my mite toward the success of a 
Convention of Northern men, to be held in New Orleans, for the purpose of 
inducing immigration, I wish, after careful investigation to submit the 
following statistics: 

Persons intending to migrate to any section, invariably ask, "What 
kind of a climate have you and what degree of health do your people enjoy ?" 

I have compiled the following statistics which illustrate most fully the 
healthfulness of Louisiana. I have selected twenty of the diseases that are 
most common, with which physicians have most to deal, and from which our 
mortality can most certainly be demonstrated. I also place after the per- 
centage a word or number, indicating the position Louisiana holds compared 
with other States, which number extends from one to six. 

TiT<5T?AQT? Pcrcetit per Compared 

Scarlet Fever 6 First. 

Enteric or Typhoid Fever 32 Second. 

Malarial Fever 55 Fourth. 

Diphtheria G First. 

Croup 12 First. 

Diarrhoea 41 Third. 

Old Age 13 Third. 

"Whooping Cough 20 . . . . : First. 

Measles 7 First. 

Erysipelas 8 First. 

Pneumonia 110 Third. 

Bronchitis 11 First. 

Pleurisy 3 ......... J'iist. 

Peritonitis 3 First. 

Apoplexy '. . . 9 First. 

Of the Urinary Organs 7 First. 

Heart Disease 20 Second. 

Cancer 10 First. 

Child Birth 18 Second. 

Still Born 18 Second. 

Average mortality 20 First. 

MORTALITY BY STATES. per 1000 

STATE. MORTALITY. 

New York.... •••• 40 

■New Jersey 32 

Virginia 32 

Tennessee 33 

New Mexico 39 

Ohio 40 

Indiana 41 

Massachusetts 37 

Maryland 36 

North Carolina 31 

South Carolina 31 

Georgia 30 



" 4i 

Kansas 30 

Nebraska 31 

California 33 

Texas 31 

Missouri 34 

Louisiana 28 

The above figures give Louisiana a mortality of twenty per one thou- 
sand for the diseases named above, which is less than any other State in the 
Union for similar diseases, while to take every disease for which we can 
gather statistics, Louisiana has a mortality of about twenty eight per cent, 
being second to no State in the Union, so far as I have investigated. There 
is another fact I wish to bring forth and that is this: Most Northern peo- 
ple have an idea that if they come to Louisiana, or any other State as far 
south, they miist go through an acclimating lever similar to Yellow Fever, 
and that nine persons out of ten die while being acclioiated This too, is a 
very eironeous idea. 

I can say that there is not one in ten that has any fever at all after com- 
ing South and that one can save himself that trouble by paying proper at- 
tention to his diet and hygienic surroundings. Further comment on the 
above is unnecessary. (Applause.) 

Also, I take great pleasure in stating to all persons, unto whose hands 
this address may fall, of the benefit derived from this climate by myself 
and of my observation since I have been in Shreveport. I pz-acticed medi- 
cine eight years in Union City, Indiana, and three in Ohio. 

Having a large p' actice, and being exposed to the bad weather usually 
prevalent in that latitude, I found that my health was gradually giving 
away, and knowing full well that a person with adhesions of the lungs, 
complicated with ulceration of the larynx, w^ould have to find a more con- 
genial climate, or go the way of the rest of the world. I began to look around 
for that climate; after an investigation of seventeen States, I decided on 
San Antonio, Texas. (After spending one year in said city, without deriving 
any benefit, in fact failing all the time) I concluded that that was not the 
place for me. I arrived in this city the second day of January, 1887. My 
weight was then 148 jDounds, to-day, one year later, it is 175 pounds, 
having just passed through the wettest winter known here in twenty 
years. I consider this section one of the healthiest in the United States. 

The mortality among the whites averages less then ten per one thou- 
sand. "Wliile among the blacks about fourteen per one thousand. My old 
home, Union City, Indiana, is considered a very healthy place, a town of 
four thousand inhabitants, and yet their death rate aggregate from sixteen 
to eighteen per one thousand. 

Our winters are very mi'd, the mercury seldom running lower than 
eighteen above zero, while this winter twenty-two above was the coldest we 
have had. With fruits of all kinds in their season, and at reasonable prices, 
and with a little care vegetables the entire year. Game of all kinds from 
the deer down to the squirrel. With millions of the feathered tribe from 
the wild turkey down to the meadow lark. 

So I say to all who are desirous of escaping the cold northern winters, 
and living in a good healthful climate, with mild winters, and where the 
mercury seldom reaches one hundred in our hottest weather, where you 



42 

want to be free from the drouth, so frequently experienced in Texas by all 
means come to Sbreveport and vicinity. Persons sufferng from throat 
troubles, bronchial trouble, chronic pleurisy, asthma, or rhrematism, will do 
well by changing ta this climate- (Applause.) 



The next on the programme was an address by 

Maj. Richard A. Pomerot, 

of New Iberia, La., formerly of Georgetown, Colorado, who read as follows: 

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : — Whatever degree of territoral 
unity the great States of America may appear to have attained, whatever 
may be the community of manners, language and public feeling which 
the habit of living under the same government and in the same stage of 
civilization, has introduced among the inhabitants of each of these States, 
there is scarcely one of them which does not, even now, present living 
traces of the diversity of races of men which in course of time have come 
together in it. This variety shows itself under different aspects, with 
features more or less marked. Sometimes it is a complete separation of 
idioms, of local traditions, of political sentiments, and a sort of instinc- 
tive enmity distinguishing from the great national mass, the population of 
a few small districts, and sometimes a mere difference of dialect or even 
of accent marks, thoiigh more feebly, the limits of the settlements of 
men once thoroughly distinct and hostile to each other. The further we 
go back from the time in which we live, the more definite these varieties 
become and the more clearly we preceive the existence of several nations 
within the geographical circumference which now bears the name of one 
only. In Louisiana, pre-eminently, we find this state of affairs, but through 
it all there exists a kindly feeling that is open to conviction and that will 
extend a hearty welcome to the stranger who gives satisfactory evidences 
of his sincerity. 

I was born and raised in the State of Ohio and came to Louisiana 
from Colorado and Idaho, where I have lived many years as a mining 
engineer and geologist. I have the honor to represent Iberia Parish in 
this Convention and also to have been chosen by the Police Jury as its 
Immigration Director. 

Ours is a portion of the Acadian land rendered famous by Longfellow 
in his Evangeline. Many journalists, in fact nearly all who visit our sec- 
tion, are somewhat compelled to hunt for that Acadian simplicity which 
they describe so romantically and lead the world to believe that we are 
content to dwell in 

" A sleepy land. 
Where under the same old wheel, 
The same old rut doth deepen year by year." (Applanse. 

And thus by such writers has our Teche country, with all its real 
energy and prosperity, been immolated upon the altar of idealism. It is 
true that the Teche is a beautiful meandering bayou with its banks 
gracefully fringed wdth live oaks and cypress, but it is nevertheless a busy 
stream with steamboats plying upon its waters, while upon its banks are 



43 

sugar refineries, cotton gins, saw mills, ice factories, founderies, shingle 
mills, brick kilns, etc., to say nothing of the thousands of acres of cane, 
cotton, corn, rice and other products with armies of laborers working 
upon them; then, besides, at most any hour of the day the whistle of the 
locomotive can be heard. Last year the commerce of Iberia Parish 

was $4,491,688 U 

that of St. Mary 7,397,934 35 

and St, Martin 2,686,102 36 

making a total for three Teche Parishes, of $14,575,724 85 

This my friends, is the reality of the Acadian land on the bayou Teche. 

The soil is wonderfully rich and productive, being an admixture of 
Ked River and Mississippi alluvium. The surface is rolling and prairie 
and above overflow, draining into the Gulf, Grand Lake and bayou Teche. 
Most of the parish lies between Grand Lake and the Gulf of Mexico. 

Cypress, oak, gum, poplar, pecan, magnolia, ash, etc., form the vast 
forests of this section. 

Sugar, cotton, rice, corn, Irish potatoes, sweet potatoes, oats and hay 
are the chief products. All vegetables with small amount of attention 
are productive, also pears, figs, quinces, plums, strawberries, grapes and 
other fruits, bewberries and blackberries grow in abundance. There is 
plenty of good pasturage. Two, and sometimes three crops are raised on 
the same ground during the year. On Petite Anse Island is the famous 
Avery Salt Mine, yielding annually 50,000 tons of various grades of salt, 
which is shipped all over the country. This wonderful mine, with its in- 
exhaustible supply of Salt, is ever an interesting sight to the visitor. 
Now as a mining engineer and geologist, I must be allowed to say a few 
words regarding the mineral wealth of Louisiana. It consists of lignite, 
coal, iron, salt, building stone, sulphur, petroleum, gold, silver, "rock" 
phosphates, marble, gypsum, fire clay, kaolin, etc. That this State has 
quantities of minerals is an assured fact, and she offers to the world a 
grand field for mining and manufacturing. A little more practical geology 
is needed, also the judicious expenditure of capital to develop the mineral 
resources of the State. 

The climate is healthy. The balmy see breezes are highly beneficial to 
the animal as well as the vegetable kingdom. The climate is a medium 
between the tropical and the north temperate, combining the advantages of 
both, and the evils of neither. (Applause.) 

There are some northern people who came to the parish with consump- 
tion, catarrh, and other maladies and who were recommended to lead an 
outdoor life, which they have done with a vengeance, for they went to 
"swamping," which although is the roughest and most exposed of all occu- 
pations, still they thrived under it, for they were restored to health. 

The timber swamps are located in wbat is known as the Atchafalaya 
valley, the greater portion of which is in, and tributary to the Teche par- 
ishes. The numerous rivers, bayons and lakes empty their waters into Ber- 
wick bay, thence through the lower Atchafalaya into the Gulf. This valley 
is about 30 miles wide and 50 miles long and contains the grandef-t cypress, 
oak and abh fuiebts in the State, bebides thouuands of acres of tillable land 



44 



which in ante helium days produced an abundance of sugar, rice and cotton. 
Since the brtakiug of the Mississijipi levees, which caused overflows, not 
much has been done in the way of planting. Now that the State and natio- 
nal government are rtpuiring the levees, niakiug them better than before, 
this section will soon be considered safe from overflow. The lands are 
extremely fertile and judging from the stalwart men of all a^es who live 
there it is undoubtedly a healthy section. So much for the Atchafalaya. 

Many years ago numbers of northern people of education and means 
settled in the Attakapas country. To-day they and their descendants are 
among the healthiest, even vieing with the proverbially healthy Creole; they 
also occupy the front ranks socially and financially. So it will be no experi- 
ment for this section to have northern immigration, as it has been tried and 
has yielded the most satisfactory results and is willing to be tried again. 

Work can be done out of doors every week in the year, for neither the 
cold nor the heat are too intense. The negro is not the only one who toils 
in our fields and manufactories, for everywhere can be seen the Creole and 
Acadian and by their side the northern man working just as hard and stan- 
ding the hf at just as well. The warmest weather I ever experienced was in 
northern Idaho Territory, when the thermometer registered 108* in the 
shade. In Ohio I have seen it 100* during the day and not much lower 
at night. The air was close and stifling and one was in constant peril of 
being sunstruck, which is not the case in Louisiana. During the late heated 
term, thermometers on the Teche rose to 95° at mid-day and at nio-ht went 
down into the seventies. With cool nights and refreshing sleep °all were 
fortified for the labors of the day. The work in the field and factory was 
not interrupted and the heated brow was frequently fanned by the cool and 
balmy breezes from the Gulf of Mexico. 

Mid summer seems to be the favorite season with our people for 
pleasure in the way of railroad and steamboat excursions, fairs, horse 
racing and dancing. Our beautiful lakes and baj^s are well adapted for 
summer resorts. As a winter resort for the invalid and tourist, our locality 
has no superior, the climate being mellow and equable. No where have I 
seen more hale and hearty old people, and to sum up our climate it is safe 
to say that we have the healthiest productive country in the world. The 
advantages for transportation are excellent, as the lakes, bayous and 
rivers are navigable, besides having the very best railway connections. 
For manufacturing the advantages are also splendid, and although we 
have many manufactories, there is plenty room for more. (Applause.) 

We need more central sugar refineries where the farmer can sell his 
cane by the ton, instead of having to go to the expense of buildino- a 
sugar house. We need rice mills so that the rice can find a home mar'ket 
and be shipped hulled. We need cotton factories, that our large amounts 
of cotton may be made into muslins, calicoes, etc. We need factories to 
make hogsheads, barrels, tubs, buckets and other wooden ware. We need 
tanneries to mamifacture leather, instead of shipj^ing the hides. We need 
canning establishments to preserve the fruits and vegetables, and ship 
them to the markets of the world. All these and other thino-s'we need to 
take care of our products and raw materials and which will pay a hand- 
some dividend on capital invested and disburse the money amon'' our 
people that to-day goes elsewhere. Coal is sold along the Teche by the 



46 

barge load and must be cheaper than wood, for nearly every manufactur- 
ing- estixblishment burns it. With the assurances of plenty of raw 
materials, lumber, and bricks for building, moderately cheap fuel, 
excellent facilities for ti'ansportation, a fine climate, fertile soil and no floods, 
we invite the manufacturer as well as the agriculturist to our shores. 
(Applause.) 

We have good public and private schools and churches of various 
denominations. ' 

As an old citizen of Colorado I must say how rejoiced I am that 
Louisiana is boiand to her by the iron bonds of rail and that commercial 
intercourse and friendly relations aro springing up between them. The 
interests of those two States aro mutual. They have both climate 
and business to exchange with each other and be benefitted thereby. 

We Northern people can congratulate ourselves for having made our 
homes in so healthy and hospitable a country and can all join in saying: 
''God bless Louisiana." (Cheers and llcarty Applause). 



The next speaker was 

.Hon. a. R. Bubkdoll, 

of Crowley, Acadia Parish, La., formerly of Edgerton, Minnesota, who 

addressed the Convention as follows: 

"Mr. President Ladies and Gentlemen of the Convention: There are 
so many eloquent and willing witnesses here that I almost hesitate to offer, 
in my humble way, testimony of my observation and experience as a recent 
seltler in Louisiana. I had hoped to say something of the advantages of 
Acadia pariah in particular, but I find n)y time limited. I will forego that 
part of my talk with only a reference to our large corn and cotton fie ds, our 
beautiful and wealth producing rice plantations; our excellent fruits; the 
large herds of sleek cattle and horses roaming at large over our prairies and 
our comfortable homes of happy and contented people. I am glad that 
Acadia parish is so well known as it is, for it leaves to me the freedom of 
speaking of the whole state of Louisiana. "I love to tell the old, old story" 
has been sung by many with much energy and enthusiasm. Ladies and 
gentlemen, with all due regard and reverence to the sacred old hymn, I 
must say that to-day I feel much like telling that new, new story of Louisia- 
na's natural richness and beauty. The cordiality of her people, the charm- 
ing geniality of her climate, the lucious sweetness of her fruits, and until 
recently that unsung and un4-»oken v/clcome now extended by her jjcople to 
their brethren of the North. (Applause.) 

When I cast about me, what food for thought comes flowing from the 
incalculable richness of this imperial com nj on wealth. Here we pass the 
dense pineries, then tlie si ill denser C3'])ress. Here the finest ash, oak, 
hickory and gum. Under our pillow at the North lie the hidden treasure 
of untold millions of ore. Near where the soothing wattjis of the Gulf 
lave the feet of our beloved Louisiana, lie in uui'athomed <iepththe inexhaus- 
tible salt dipo--its. Upon our eastern borders, wbere flows tl^at majestic 
river, the Fatber of Waters, lie rich tieldy, bearing the sweet nebs of our 
nation in Iheii' fertile laps, while upon our western borders, lor many miles 



46 

inland, stretches as beautiful prairies as ever were gieeted by the inspiring 
ra}s of a suuthlund sun. 

But I am told by my friends from the land of blizzards that all this 
they believe. But how about the yellow fever and general roalarial com- 
plaints? How about that Southern sun, which must be dreadful? There 
is the rub. The past history of- the lower Missistiippi Valley lias a sad chap- 
ter on the ravages of yellow fever. It was brought to these shorts from the 
far South. Without that well-disciplined system of quarantine which now 
insures us safety, it rapidly spread and left its terrible story of misery and 
deat'j behind I believe that, had the germs of this dreaded fever been 
sown in Northern cities as they were in those of the South, the effect would 
have been equally as disastrous. So far as other complaints are concerned 
I have thus far failed to note, and I believe I am in a good position to 
gather information, that degree of sickness which I have many time wit- 
nessed in the North. I well know that the physicians of Louisiana grow 
wealth}' no faster than do those of my former home, yet I perceive that their 
fees are exactly double. 

I find that at no time during the summer months have we had a higher 
temperature than 9G°, while at my old home in Minnesota the good people 
who gave me a sort of graveyard farewell when I left them, have been enjoy- 
ing the charming temperature of 105° to 100°. While our summer heat is 
tempered by the refreshing Gulf breeze, they are so many hundred miles 
inland that their winds come to them like the blast from a heated oven. 

But even genial skies, soothing breezes laden with health-giving pro- 
perties, will not suffice for the man of energy who enjoys the plenty which 
comes through a general prosperity. The romance of Evangeline, nor the 
fragrant bloom of a hundred roses will give the practical man his bread and 
butter. 

That this is a country of 'easy conditions' is true. That this idea is 
being too much advertised, I am afraid, is also true. The Northwestern 
farmer who rustles to his utmost for four to six months, to produce enough 
to sustain him for the next six months of winter, hears of the easy condi- 
tions of things here. He thaws loosefrom the ice and snow, trades free his 
chattel mortgages, sacrifices his real estate, if he has any, and comes South 
fully expecting that the birds, the little birds, will feed him and his family. 
He finds little native enterprise, no desire to push improvements. He ac- 
cepts the situation, throws his hands idly into his lap and waits for the 
manna to fall into his mouth. Very often it don't fall, and he then 'cusses* 
the country. That is the kind of men who should be warned against cfim- 
ing here. We have too many of that class already. 

I can inform my Northern brethren that never have I seen a country 
where nature is more helpful to the enterprising and industrious. Out iu 
our new parish of Acadia, where a few years ago it was thought the soil was 
worthless, except for growing wild grasses, can to-day be found large fields 
of splendid corn and cotton. Thousands of acres of land send large yields 
of excellent rice to the markets of our country. 

What we need most is honest, intelligent labor. Let us advise our 
friends North on this point. Our fruits are delicious, but can be vastly 
improved. Our wild grasses afford good grazing, but j^ood domestic grasses 
will be fully 100 per cent better for all purposes. Soiue of our best lands 
need draining; in fact, we have a new old country. It produces with WOU" 
derful promptness when rightfully handled. 



47 

During the past two weeks I have made a tour of our parish, and had 
ample opportunity to test the hospitality of the people. Erom the rudest 
humble Acadian home to the fine and palatial house of the wealthy were ex- 
tended to me greetings the most cordial. These receptions accorded to us 
by our Southern friends are most keenly appreciated. A grand feeling for 
a united brotherhood swells our hearts and soothes our prejudices. Yes, 
thank the Ruler of all nations, the North and South of the greatest and 
best nation on earth are shaking hands, a united people, who together will 
make this truly 'the land of the free and the home of the brave.' (Applause.) 

The good people of Acadia have made me the honored bearer of this 
emblematic bouquet of good will. Here at the top is an olive branch, 
inviting peace and good will; entwined about it in richest silver, this rice, 
an emblem of plenty. Beneath its heavy laden heads are bound the Japa- 
nese persimmons, rightfully said to be the fruit of the gods; while at the 
base are woven these sprigs of arbor vitae — the tree of life. Acadia soil 
has grown these elements and Acadia hands have bound them together I, 
in behalf of Acadia's prosperity, hospitality and good will, bring it here as 
a greeting from Louisiana's youngest parish." (Cheers and Applause.) 

The next speaker was 

Mr. O. B, Sansum, 

of Amite City, Tangipahoa Parish, La., formerly of Chicago, 111., in place of 
Kev. W. C. Barnes, of Kentucky, who spoke as follows: 

"Ladies and Gentlemen: — As the President has told you, I am doing 
duty as a substitute, representing Rev. W. C. Barnes, who preaches the 
Gospel at Hammond and along the line to Amite City. Mr. Barnes has 
been detained, I believe, and cannot be present, therefore I will endeavor 
to fill his place. 

I have the programme here before me of the Convention and I shall 
follow out the plan it proposes, and tell especially the facts that are in my 
mind's eye, respecting the subject we are here to talk about. 

If Mr. Barnes were here his text would be the State of 
Louisiana generally, and the Parish of Tan gipohoa especially and particularly, 
therefore I shall talk a little about the State of Louisiana generally, and 
about the Parish of Tangipahoa especially and particularly. 

Of course we are all here to tell what we know about the climate, health 
and soil of the State; whatever we may say to-day or what was said yesterday 
are our own personal experiences. We stand as it were, witnesses before the 
ladies and gentlemen of this Convention who are the jury — I suppose, to 
pass their verdict upon the issues that are presented for consideration. We 
are bearing testimony to facts, to substantial facts, real facts, and not any 
theory. 

We are here, I am here, to present facts for the purpose of convincing 
you all of the desirableness of the State of Louisiana as a place of residence, 
where men and women and children can come and live, and if they choose 
become rich and enjoy life. 

Now here with me I have a thermometer in my pocket, telling you 
arid the world at large, even to Europe that it registers only 80°, on the 8th 
of August, at Jl o'clock in the forenoon in New Orleans, and I want every- 
body to bear witness to it, that that is the temperature of this room. Now 
thafi I have told you and shown you the temperature of this room, I will now 
teli you all I know about the State of Louisiana. 



47h 

of August, at 11 o'clock in the forenoon in New Orleans, aud I want every- 
body to bear witness to it, that that is the temperature of this room. Now 
that I have told you and shown you the temperature of this room, I will now 
tell you all I know about the State of Louisiana. 

In the ante-bellium days this State was substantially an (erra incognito an 
unknown laud. I passed through this State in 1868 and went on to Chicago 
where I had lived during the war. I had lived in Montreal; I lived in Chica- 
go seventeen years before I came here; I know the entire country from the 
Gull of St. Lawrence to Yucatan; I know the whole of Mexico, I have travel- 
led through it and lived in it for weeks and months, but Louisiana was 
absolutely an unknown country before the war. 

The people in those days did not want immigration. Immigration was 
against the institution that then existed here. I had formed the same opinion 
from what I had heard, and that this was a poor fever stricken place, and 
that to come to New Orleans you came to get the yellow fever and die and 
nothing else, or to be run through with a Creole sword. 

When I was about to move from the North (in 1868) my friends all 
said to me "why ! are you going to New Orleans, don't you know that you 
will never live down there, why you'll die." A few years after on going back 
to Chicago, back on a visit, my friends said, "well Sansum where have you 
been?" I said "down in New Orleans," "what! New Orleans ? how could you 
live down there? did they know that you came from the North ?" I told them 
"yes.' that the right hand of fellowship had been extended to me by Creoles 
and everyone else. (Applause). 

Well my friends, ladies and gentlemen, I tell you that this was an un- 
discovered country before the war. The war brought the tramping soldiers 
here, and they looked around a little and when they were withdrawn they 
went off talking about what they had seen. They told of what a nice country 
they had been in. They were what you call "forced visitors." After the war, 
people got to talking about Louisiana; some northern people came down 
here and settled, but the conditions of society were not suitable; as some one 
said yesterday, "it was a little too early." They came back and invested 
their money, planting cotton down here expecting to realize a fortune. In- 
stead of getting 40c. a pound for their cotton (as they expected) they got 
nothing. 

Now after the war the conditions of things changed. 

Time has brought its healing and covered over the scars of the war, 
and the right hand of fellowship is extended to all who come from the North, 
with strong arms and hearts, and brain power. If they will take hold and be 
industrious, Louisiana, the whole State, I except no part of it, presents to- 
day more money to the square inch for intelligent industry, than any where 
on the face of the earth. (Applause.) 

Now Louisiana comes up here in this Convention. Of course we are 
greatly indebted to the Immigration Association of Louisiana (of whom my 
friend Col. Moorman is the President) for bringing us here together to-day, 
to tell our experiences. Louisiana brings here her Chief Justice, he rSupei'in- 
tendent of Education, one of her most leading Clergymen, her j^resident of 
the Board of Health, and the U. S. Signal corp Director, and they all stand 
here, and invite you to come to Louisiana. They help lift away from her 
the covering under which she has existed for years, and the Chief Justice 
comes and tells you tbat her laws are wise and good for high and low, rich 
and poor alike. Dr. Palmer tells you that her church doors are all open to 
those who chose to enter within them. Then comes Superintendent Breaux, 



48 

and he says that her schools are not what they ought to be for the education of 
the young, and no doubt correctly, for her schools and school-teachers have 
not been treated properly, and I say it plainly and openly. The President 
of the Board of Health compares her with all the States in the Union. "What 
the death rate is, and then he goes down to the little children, and tells of 
their healthf ulness — and it cannot be anything but satisfactory to the reason 
able man, convincing him if any thing could convince him, that Louisiana is 
to-day one of the most healthful regions looking from the confines of the 
St. Lawrence down to the rolling waters of the Mississippi. (Applause.) 

They have come here to-day to tell you all about Louisiana, what she is; 
they have given you her faults (if she has any) and they have laid before 
you all her natural, though not well developed resources, and they say to 
you — "here is Louisiana uncovered and we beg you to look upon this fair 
and beautiful picture." 

Now taking the whole State, and running briefly around its borders. 
The Gulf of Mexico waters her shores where we can have sea-bathing, and 
themost abounding quantities of fish and oysters. 

The facilities for stock raising are second to none in the country. I 
had occasion to pass through Southern Texas two years ago, and going 
over the Texas Pacific Road, from Colorado City to El Paso, I could have 
counted fully 1,000 cattle to each mile lying dead along the track, having 
perished in that region for want of water. It is not an uncommon thing for 
cattle to have to go 20 miles for water. In North Louisiana and in our 
prairie lands with an abundance of water, abounding as it does with every 
thing that is necessary for stockmen to become rich. 

Leaving Louisiana to go into Southern Texas — Leaving Louisiana s 
splendid land to go out there and pay high prices for that barren, sterile in- 
hospitable country covered with the cactus. Leave this country to go there? 

I am going back to my programme to see if I have left out anything* 
Now you all know if you have lived in the Southern part of this State' 
that there are no killing frosts there; you have no blizzards, you know that 
everything you put into the earth (suitable to the soil) grows wonderfully. 
It seems so nice, my friends, I prefer to stay here in. thesummer 
and go North in the winter, rather than go North in the summer, 
notwithstanding that we have to use our handkerchiefs. We perspire 
freely, but it is a great benefit to us. We have a longer summer than in 
Illinois or Iowa, but they have a longer winter, and as between the two I 
will take the long summer all the time. Gentlemen, you know what South- 
ern Louisiana is, because most of you live in Southern Louisiana, you know 
what her magnificent corn fields are, you know all about her products, and 
therefore it is unnecessary for me to make more than passing mention. 

It is a well known fact that she can produce four to six thousand 
pounds of sugar to the acre, corn about one hundred bushels to the acre, if 
the cultivation be right. One hundred acres of corn, somewhere near 
Shreveport, yielded last year 99 bushels to the acre. (Great Applause.) 

Now gentlemen look at our water down here. Take the pine wooded 
region of Covington, the Abita Springs, the most wonderful curative, health 
giving waters on the globe, better than the celebrated Carlsbad. 

A few years ago my son came from Spanish Honduras where he had 
contracted a fever, one of the kind that remains in the system for months 
and months. We tried everything we could think of but with no results. One 



4§ 

day 1 aaid "here is $25, take it and go over to Abita Springs.'' He went 
over and he returned in about nine or ten days, not longer than ten days, 
and I pledge you my word, he looked like another being, the flv;sh of health 
was on his cheeks and the fever had eutuely disappeared. I said to him 
"why Ernest what has changed you so." "He said the first day I got 
there I thought that I would come right straight back, the "out-fit" was not 
so nice. The next morning I was so hungry I ate up everything on the 
table, so did the other boarders, and the third day we were ready to eat 
dishes, tables, chairs and everything else we could lay our hands on." 
While he was there, an old man was brought from somewhere in 
Mississippi, who could not walk, and before my son left the old fellow was 
leaping and jumping around like a frog, although he had not been there 
more than two weeks — The water in the pine regions of Louisiana is the 
most wonderful on earth. 

I am sorry to say I have never been to Abita, but I have a well of extra- 
ordinary water on my place 68 miles north of this town; if any of you 
ladies' and gentlemen will come up 1 will give you a drink of the most 
delicious water you ever tasted. 

Now Tangipahoa Parish is a piney wood country, running from Pass 
Manchac up to the State line, and gentlemen, it is one of the most healthful 
parts of the State. The nights are never hot, and the parish is begining to 
be one garden from Ponchatoula up. We have no large cane fields, and 
no large corn fields as yet, but I tell you what is a fact, sugar 
cane can be produced upon these lands, where the soil is ready for it, as 
well as in the bottomland; and corn with pioper cultivation, you can raise it 
for 10c. a bushel, and the yield will be from 50 to 75 bushels per acre, de- 
pending upon the soil and cultivation. 

Three years ago there was nothing shipped from that parish but 
cotton; a few persons commenced fruit growing, and I mention one instance 
for your consideration. At Hammond, this last year, a Mr. Rogers, from 3^ 
acres, shipped 758 crates of strawberries, realizing therefrom $1007, besides 
about $50 worth he sold about the place. The labor was performed by him- 
self and family, the only expense was about $23 for a ton of fertilizer. 

The past season, was not good for fruit growing. The rain poured 
down and filled the berries with water so that they were like so many 
little vinegar barrels. Had it not been for that we would have shipped over 
$50,000 worth of strawberries, and three years ago there was scarcely a 
fruit grower there. At Amite City the year preceeding, there were 
$13,000 worth of strawberi'ies shipped North. 

One hundred families have settled at Hammond, and about one hundred 
other families have settled during the same time, at points north of 
Hammond, in the same parish. 

German millet and red clover grow splendidly. Lucerne grows beauti- 
fully. It is a magnificent stock country. 

Now up here on the Jackson Road, pine timber is abundant. There are 
four or five saw mills at Ponchatoula, and Hammond, two were recently 
constructed. 

My time is rapidly drawing to a close, I shall not detain you much long- 
er, and I do not want to appeal to the audience for an extension of 
time. I have endeavored to show you that all along the line of the Jack- 
sun Railroad is a fairly good soil, one nf the best sections in the country, 



The people are good and hospitable, and the railroad Company is anxious to 
advance the general good of the country. (Applause.) 

Unequalled facilities for bricks and brick-tiles, are at Hammond, Mr. 
C. E. Gate will bear me out for he is the owner. 

There are a number of artesian wells at Hammond and Pouchatoula. 
The parish of Tangipohoa can produce corn, cows, cabbages, cauliflowers, 
butter, melons, sweet potatoes, Irish potatoes and all other esculents in 
great abundance and with little expense. Sugar cane can be seen at my 
place in as good condition and as far advanced as the best cane on the lands 
of the Bayou Teche or the lands adjacent to the Mississippi river, and it 
can be planted and cultivated at one-half the cost incurred in the low lands 
of the State. 

I have given you mere glimpse of the whole State but more especially 
the Parish of Tangipahoa. (Great Applause), 

The next address was by 

Capt. p. Butler, 

of Charleyville, Richland Parish, formerly of Saratoga, New York. "Who 
spoke as follows: 

''Ladies and Gentlemen — I am no speech-maker, and before I begin this 
little talk I want to thank Col. Geo. Moorman and Majr. H. H. Baker for 
the welcome and the kindness I have received through Ihem. I am from the 
State of New York, and came to the State of Louisiana 13 years ago, as a 
laborer, not as a capitalist. 

My parents were poor and I never received the benefit of much educa- 
tion. We managed to subsist and make a living, and I owe what I possess 
to-day, to having left up there, and moved to a place of more favorable 
conditions. (Applause . ) 

I am proud to say that I have lived here 13 years and never met the 
Ku-Klux, if I did, I did not know them. I have never had any fever since I 
have lived in this State (13 years) and I am to-day a strong able-bodied 
man, and have worked as many as 18 hours a day during the busy crops, in 
person and beside the negro, and to-day I stand before the world a living 
monument of the health and climate of Louisiana. (Applause.) 

I live in Eichland Parish, own my farm and have a little interest in 
Bienville. Had I remained in Saratoga county. New York, where I was 
born and raised, I might never even with the fair wages they are paj'ing up 
there, I do not know that I would have been ever able, at the high price of 
living, to have made more than would keep me. 

Eichland is one of the most inviting Parishes between the Mississippi 
and the Ouachita. "We have about 34,000 acres of vacant land there which 
is certain for good crops with intelligent and proper cultivation, and can be 
bought according to the size of your pocket from 25c. per acre for unim- 
proved land, to about $5.00. Lands under cultivation sell for probably 
$40.00 per acre. We have in that Parish a variety of classes of timber — 
we have hickory, oak, pine and gum timber as fine as is in the State. 

We have a court-house, that cost us $12,000, and is paid for. We have 

money in the treasury. (Applause.) 

"\Ve do not owe a dollar, the parish is entirely out of debt. (Applause.) 
We have forty schoolhouses equally divided, 20 white, and 20 colored, 

ftnd churches in accordance. Applause.) 



51 

We have one Bailroad running through the parish east and west. We 
have also river communication and both give us easy access to the great 
City of New Orleans. 

Now we have I am told, a chance of having another Kailroad being 
built, one from Fort Scott to Natchez. 

It is no very hard thing to build this road, as there are no tunnels to 

be dug, no large streams to cross, and the grading won't average on the 
whole more than four feet. 

I believe that in the near future, we will have three Kailroads instead 
of one. 

As my time seems pretty nearly up, and I have'nt any thing more to 
say in regard to the interest of the parish, I will close by saving that I am a 
living specimen of a man who works in the field every day of his life, and 
has lived in the State of Louisiana 13 years. (Loud Applause.) 

The next address was by 

Maj. F. M, Welch, 

of Jeanerette, Iberia Parish, La., formerly of St. Paul, Minn., which 

is as follows: 

" Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen of the Convention. — Having been 
appointed as a delegate representing the Parish of Iberia, I will endeavor, 
to the best of my ability to give a meagre discription of that beautiful 
parish. The garden of the southwest, a land of refuge for home seekers, 
rich in the choicest gifts of nature; magnificent, agricultural, horticultural, 
manufacturing and business advantages. 

In the list of Louisiana Parishes noted for their wonderful fertility and 
varied advantages, which make them specially desirable locations f(jr the 
founding of homes, for those seeking a congenial clime; pleasant social re- 
lations, and profitable occupations. Iberia stands first. Indeed, this parish 
leads all others in the wonderful richness and beauty of the great southwest. 

This parish is situated in the southwestern portion of the State, one 
hundred and eighteen miles from New Orleans, convenient to the markets 
of the great southern metropolis and crossed by the Southern Pacific Kail- 
road, the great Trans-continental line supplying convenient and cheap 
transportation to and from all portions of the country. 

It is watered by the lliver Teche, on which float the year round, three 
lines of large steamers, furnishing communication by water direct to New 
Orleans, and which supplies an abundance of water for stock, the entire 
year. Besides this stream, are a number of smaller streams, and several 
of the most picturesque lakes to be found in the South. Bounded on the 
south by the Mexican Gulf, the elevation of the land and the prairie stretch- 
ing on to the shores of the Gulf ensure uninterupted sweep of the delightful 
Gulf breezes, which temper the rays of the summer sun, and render the 
nights delightful. 

The lands of Iberia parish, are probably richer than in any other portion 
of the State and are adapted to a greater variety of crops and yield richer 
returns to the hands of iudustrj. 



l^his country to a great extent is free from distressing malarial diseases 
dreaded by the liome seekers in the South; an evidence of the healthfulness 
of this parisli, is the fact that there are but six iDracticiug physicians with a 
population of over twenty thousand. 

The lands of this parish are of inexhaustible fertility, being entirely free 
from roots and rocks, the settler has only to turn the soil with his plow in 
order to secure a crop the first season. 

This land is adapted to the production of sugar cane, rice, sorghum, 
ramie, jute, cotton, corn, oats and hay, and even with passible attention will 
yield from twenty to thirty tons of cane, one bale of cotton, fifty to seventy- 
five bushels of oats, fifty bushels of corn, and from two to four tons of hay 
to the acre. 

There is probably no portion of the United States where fruits grow to 
greater perfection, or are more sure of yielding than in Iberia parish. On 
these rich lands, the peach flourishes with the greatest luxuriance. The 
atmosphere and generous sunshine are sure factors in the production of the 
most perfect specimens of this luscious fruit, which in appearance and flavor 
is unsurpassed by the fruit of any portion of the world. 

The favorable soil and climate mature these fruits very early, and the 
convenient railroad communication enables the Orchardist to put his fruit 
into the northern cities, far in advance of any other section, and enables 
him to command profitable prices. 

Plums, figs, apricots, grapes, pears, quinces, oranges to some extent, 
indeed all orchard fruits except apples, are at home in this soil and climate, 
and grow to the greatest perfection, gaining a great advantage by their 
early ripening. 

Vegetables grow to perfection in these soils, and most of the vegetables 
can be cultivated through the year. Strawberries, dewberries, blackberiies 
and raspberries all grow luxuriantly. 

In these rich alluvial lands these fruits may be cultivated with the 

greatest ease, and the yield will be most abundant, and the situation will 

protect them fi'om any sudden changes of the temperature, early in the 
season. 

Vegetable farming will be specially profitable in this parish, surrounded 
as it is with growing towns and with the city of New Orleans and Houston 
at its door. 

There are vast fortunes awaiting those who will devote a due amount 
of skill, intelligence and industry to the proper cultivation of fruits and 
vegetables on these magnificent lands, and as an evidence of the profits, 
which may be necessarily expected from the business, it may be said that 
Kansas City, St. Louis, Louisville, Cincinnati, Chicago and even Milwaukee, 
send thousands of dollars yearly to California for fruits. These cities ofler 
profitable markets for these products, as they can be delivered so much 
cheaper and fresher than Irom California, and are far superior in quality. 
To the denizens of the frozen North and West, this will prove another 
Caanan where the sun seldom ceases to shine, where the freezing blasts are 
tempered by the mild breath of the Gulf stream. 

The people are hospitable, generous, social, kind and obliging to 
strangers, always ready to assist and advise them. There is an abundance 
of timber for ordinary purposes. 



06 

Mr. Joseph Jefferson, the famed impersonator of Rip Van Winkle, 
inakes this his winter home living on his Orange Island, about ten miles 
southwest of the new town of Lydia. Mr. Jf^.fferson says that above all 
places on earth for a winter home, give him Iberia Parish. Besides the 
orange island are two others, one known as Weeks' and the other as Avery or 
Salt Island. 

Lands in Iberia Parish, can be bought in any quantity, to suit the 
purchasers at from seven to twenty dollars per acre. 

The large plantations are being divided into small farms, and when 
this is done and the lands cultivated by self interested white producers, it 
will be the Banner parish of the State and the Paradise of America. 
(Great Applause) . 

The next address was by 

Mr. Kobert Ridoway, 

of Tile-Works, St Bernard Parish, La., formerly of Marion-Grant Co., 
Indiana, who spoke as follows: 

Mr. President Ladies and Gentlemen: 

I wish to state by way of apology, in justice to myself, and for the 
information of this convention, that by some mishap or oversight I had 
no notice that I was expected to prepare an address for this meeting, and 
knew nothing about it until I came to this convention and saw my name 
listed on the programme for an address for St. Bernard Parish and vici- 
nity. I therefore have had no opportunity for gathering data and statistics 
whereby I might have been much better prepared to have represented my 
section of the fair and fertile state of Louisiana. It cannot therefore be 
expected that I do more than glance at the many advantages to be found 
in the grand and historic Parish of St. Bernard. 

I live in this Parish and consider it one of the best in the State, not- 
withstanding the great and varied advantages that have been so well set 
forth in this convention of the other Parishes of Louisiana, permit me to 
say, right here, that those of St. Bernard are yet unsurpassed. 

This Parish adjoins the City of New Oi-leans, the great metropolis of 
the sunny South, and is connected therewith by Lake, Canal, River and 
Rail Road communications, unsurjjassed by any other section of the State. 

The soil of St. Bernard is perhaps as fine and fertile as any in Louisi- 
ana or even in the known world; and w'hat has been said in this conven- 
tion of the health, climate and seasons, also of the variety, quantity and 
quality of the products of other Parishes are equally true of St. Bernard. 
(Applause.) 

I came to this Parish, an invalid three years ago last June. Had 
been suffering with that lothasome disease "Nasal Catarrh." I had ex- 
hausted medical skill without effecting a cure. Being called here on 
business I hired men and superieutended the construction of a Factory for 
the manufacture of underdraiu Tiles. (This being the pioneer Tile works 
of the State.) At first I Avas a httle cautious, having been taught the 
eri-oueous idea that no white man could labor under this tropical sun and 
live, that none but colored men could do out door manual labor. I hired 
9. number of negroes and undertook the arduous task of teaching them by 



51 

examples how to work, as I did not fear to labor a little while at a time 
mj-self finally I shed my umbrella and linen, rolled my sleeves and made 
a fnll hand, discounting any two darkies that could be found. 

Scarce two weeks had elapsed before I felt that the shackles of disease 
were breaking and falling off, and in six weeks from the time I had land- 
ed in Louisiana I had almost wholly recovered. In short I found that 
this country was not so deathly after all. [Applause.] 

By the time I had our tile works constructed and well into operation 
I had become so well pleased with the country and its people that I con- 
cluded to make it my home. (Applause.) 

During the following summer of 1886 I went up on Bayou Lafourche, 
and thoroughly tile drained sixty seven acres of land. There, I not only 
superintended the work of excavation, but handled the instruments and 
spade as well as the colored men, I brought men fresh from the Hoosier 
State and put them right to work, not a man fell sick, all went on with 
their work, never missing a meal, and all had hearty appetites and good 
stomachs. 

I think I have demonstrated to my own and others satisfaction that 
Louisiana is a place where northern men can come and labor and Hve. 
(Applause.) 

Too much cannot be said in praise of Louisiana. I find at least from 
personal observation, that Louisiana possesses to a most wonderful degree 
great opportunities for making money, and a young man with any get up 
about him, with only a little money or even nothing but his energy, can in 
a few years make a fortune as an agriculturist alone. There is no country 
on earth that has any greater advantages than Louisiana. (Applause.) 

We have twelve months working season, and products for the year 
round. In the North and West we can labor only part of the year, and 
during the other three months they have to consume or eat up what they 
have laid by — not so here — Louisiana offers most wonderfuU advantages for 
the enterprising man to come and take hold of. I must be brief in my 
remarks; there has been much said of Louisiana, of her benefits and advan- 
tages, by tongues more flowery than mine, but I will say that the whole has 
not yet been told. (Applause.) 

Ladies and Gentlemen: — I beg your pardon for introducing to you what 
may appear to be the edge of an ax; I have already told you why I came to 
Louisiana. I dare say every member of this convention is interested in the 
rapid and permanent improvement of this promising country. The busi- 
ness I am pioneering here is destined to, and will do more for this country 
than any thing yet introduced. 

It has improved the condition of the soil, doubled the crops and health 
of England, Scotland, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and indeed, of every other 
locality where it has been introduced, and gentlemen it will do as much for 
Louisiana. (Applause.) 

Not "withstanding all the great and wonderous things claimed by this 
fair state, yet as our Saviour said unto the young man, who came seeking 
salvation, so I will unto Louisiana: "One thing thou lackest yet" — Tile 
Drainage. — (Applause.) 

In conclusion will say that tile drainage is the fabled goose, — no, — the 



55 

real goose, that is already laying the golden eggs, which "will hatch and de- 
velop into prosperity, health, wealth and happiness. (Great applause.) 

The next address was by 

Hon. E. Bourne 

of Abbeville, Vermilion Parish La., formerly of Cooperstown, N. Y. who 
read as follows: 

3Ir. President Ladies and Gentlemen — the parish of Vermilion, is situa- 
ted in Southwest Louisiana, it is bounded on the Southwest by the Gulf of 
Mexico, on the South and Southeast by Vermilion bay, there is about Eight 
miles of Marsh in width, extending the entire width of the parish, where 
thousands of cattle are pastured winter and summer, with no other food 
than is found on the Marsh. Southwest pass is situated in Vermilion parish. 

Southwest pass is the Junction of the Gulf of Mexico and jVermilion 
bay; where there is open deep water, through the Gulf of Mexico to all 
parts of the World. 

There is now a survey being made, for a railroad to connect us with 
different Western roads at Alexandria, La., and to run from that point to 
Southwest pass in Vermilion parish. 

Vermilion river runs through Vermilion parish, from North to South, 
discharging its waters into Vermilion bay, about twelve miles East of South- 
west pass. We have constant Steamboat navigation by way of Vermilion 
river to the Gulf of Mexico; also many Sloops, Schooners, and O3 ster Luggers, 
traverse the entire width of the parish, and beyond into Lafayette parish. 
We also have the finest of oysters during the winter at Seventy-five cents 
per hundred; our agricultural products are sugar cane, rice, corn, sweet and 
Irish potatoes, cotton and cabbage. All Vegetables grow in abundance. 

Our fruits are very fine, and the first in excellence is the Kieffer and 
Leconte pears; we also have splendid peaches, plums, necterines, figs, grapes 
and all small fruits; and all the above can be grown as well or better than 
in the North or West. Also apples will do well here particularly early 
apples; but winter apples will not equal the Northern grown fruit, but early 
and late apples are well worth cultivating. We have some oranges but 
they are not always certain fruit, we occasionally have a freeze that will 
injure and sometimes kill the trees; yet every one should plant a few trees, 
as they do very well in this Parish. 

As for a mans political sentiments, he can express them as freely here, 
and not be molested as he can in the North or West. To say there is no 
rascality at the polls would be to say an untruth, but are all the elections at 
the North conducted with Christian piety, let those well versed witji politics 
answer. 

We are not molested, neither in our political sentiments, nor with our 
desire to vote. 

We are not only kindly received but Southern people are very anxious 
to have us come. 

They are not anxious for European immigration, but they are very glad 
for Western people to come. They are extremely anxious for Western 
thrift and vim to' come. 

If demagogues would quit their misrepresentations it would be better 
both for North and South. 



Vermilion Parish has a rich Boil and good health. 

We have almost a constant sea breeze, the nights are delightfully cool, 
often we want a light covering by twelve o'clock at night. 

The heat is not so oppressive as it is in Illinois or Indiana. The 
thermometer rarely ever reaches to 96°, I have never seen it over 96". 

The health of our citizens is very good, far better than in the Western 
States. This is a great fruit country and by the time we can get orchards 
in good bearing will havo direct railroad communication with the great 
West. 

We can have garden vegetables the year round. Such vegetables as 
beets, cabbage, carrots, parsnips, turnips lettuce and onions growing all 
winter, the little freeze we have here does not hurt them. 

When we get a railroad to Alexandria La., this will be a great truck 
farming country; we will have the great West for ou"? market. 

There is no section of the South that can beat us in fruit growing and 
vegetable gardens. Set aside once for all the many foolish tales told to you 
of the hostile feelings of Southern people as against the Western or North- 
ern people. Human nature is about the same all the world over. The 
great difference that exists, is their surroundings, each and every section 
has its peculiarities. 

All who wish to leave the cold blizzards of the North, and come to the 
Sunny South, will receive the right hand of fellowship, and no bulldozing. 
You can laugh at the peculiarities of Southern people, and in return they 
will laugh at yours, and be good friends. 

One objection Northern and Western people have heretofore had to 
Louisiana was that there was no Sunday law, we have now a Sunday law and 
it is strictly enforced. Public Schools are improving, we have public schools 
in this parish for ten months of the year. Morality is improving. Our 
next fight will be against the liquor traffic, tomorrow a mass meeting will be 
held to send delegates to a State Convention to be held at Monroe, La. 

The writer of the above is a native of New York, and invites all to come 
to Vermilion Parish and you will receive a hearty welcome. (Applause.) 

The next address was by 

Hon. Jno. W. Austin, 

of Plaquemine, Iberville Parish, La., formerly of Poultney, Eutland County^ 

Vermont, who read as follows: 

" 3fr. President and Gentlemen: — When requested to speak for Iberville 
in this Convention, I was told that my experience of many years in 
Louisiana would enable me to staiw facts and offer suggestions that might 
be interesting to our brethern from Northern States. I doubted my 
ability to do so, but consented to make the effort, and if to day I succeed 
in giving new light or encouragement to those who have come, and those 
who think of coming to abide with us, I shall be more than gratified. 

When I came to Louisiana in 1849, I thought of going back North, 
after having gained strent>th for weak lungs; but finding the climate con- 
genial — the people friendly and hospitable, I concluded to remain longer. 

With my health restored I had found new life — had formed new and 
pleasant associations, and the longer I remained the harder it was to get 



57 

away. I am here yet — have been here for 39 years, and hope to remain here 
in Louisiana for many years to come. 

It may be thought that in so long a time, my identity as a northern man 
has been lost. To a certain extent this may be true — I love my adopted 
State, and its generous hearted people; I also cherish the memories of 
childhood and youth. I love my native Green Mountain State and its 
worthy inhabitants, among whom I have friends and relations. I love to 
visit them in the summer time, but dare not encounter the long cold winters 
of New England, a vivid memory of which I retain. 

When visiting at my old home in Vermont, some years ago, I called at 
farm houses and talked with farmers, of whom soine were old friends, and 
some relations. The general complaint among them, was that times were 
hard. They told me that butter sold at 16 cts. per lb., cheese at 8 cts, 
potatoes at 30 cts. per bushel, and other produce correspond ingly low. 
That (hey were compelled to work very hard and practice rigid economy in 
order to make both ends meet. I noticed the general air of comfoi*t sur- 
rounding their homes — the good condition of their animals and crops. I 
saw that when tbey drove to the village store, or to church, they went in 
good style, driving Lambert, Highland Grey or Morgan Horses. 

I wondered how these men could live so well and accomplish so much 
considering all their disadvantages of climate and soil. I thought I under- 
stood the secret of their success, when I noticed they worked hard when 
necessary always with intelligence — doing the right thing at the right time 
— and were always ahead of their work. 

I thought then that if such farmers — with such habits of industry 
and economy would come to Louisiana with their intelligence and steady 
habits, they would not find it hard to make both ends meet, nor very difficult 
to make a fortune. 

I told them of the deep rich soil in Louisiana. That we could plow and 
plant in winter. That we could raise two and three crops in succession on 
the same laud in a year. That we could have strawberries in February — 
new potatoes in March, and a great variety of fruits and vegetables the 
greater part of the year. That we sold butter at 50 cts. per lb., milk 10 cts. 
per quart, and that onr cattle could take care of themselves, the greater 
part of the year with but a little attention. I told them of our sugar cane, 
our orchards, our winter gardens, our orange groves and our roses and 
mocking birds in winter. And when I told theiu that rich lands in Louisi- 
ana — available for cultivation — could be bought from $5 to $25 per acre 
they wondered, and thought it strange that such lands, at such prices, in such 
a favorable climate should remain so long unoccupied. I thought as they 
did, and think so still. 

Well, said one, I guess the sun is too hot down there for white men 
working out of doors in summer time, I admitted that it was rather warm, 
sometimes in July and August, but insisted tbat with such management as I 
saw in Vermont, most farmers could have their work out of the way, so that 
they could go to the sea shore, or rest under the shade at home, durin^ hot 
summer weather. 

An old Republican friend of mine in Vermont, wanted to know how 
northern men were treated iu Louisiana. He had been to Virginia, where 
people were friendly, but had heard that in some States further South, 
northern Republicans were badly treated; I anewered that I Bomctimes 



heard of such places, oflf somewhere else, but never believed such reports, 
until convinced by hearing both sides of the question. 

I could say for Louisiana — my parish in particular — that northern men 
are here treated with due respect and consideration, no matter what their 
political sentiments may be. 

When I came South , I was apprenhensive about many things, the 
yellow fever in particular, and had I known six weeks after my arrival, that 
I was helping to care for a northern man with yellow fever, in all probability 
I should have been frightened into the fever myself, as many others have 
been. But the Doctor was considerate and only informed me of my danger 
some weeks after it was over, when his patient had recovered, and gone 
home to New York. 

My next acquaintance with yellow fever was during the epidemic of 
1853. I had it then — my only recollection of it now is that I was in bed, 
took medicine, drank freely of cold lemonade, and was well again in five 
days. 

My friend Mr. Mc Williams, of Plaquemine, came to Louisiana, from 
New Jersey the same year I did, and had the yellow fever when I did in 1853; 
he was sick only 48 hours, and has never consulted a Doctor from that day 
to this. I consider him a fair example of the effect produced by this climate 
on a northern man, who leads an active, prudent and temperate life. 

Mr. Jas. S. Tuttle, a northern man, has lived in Iberville Parish 46 years. 
He kept a record of yellow fever cases in Plaquemine during the epidemic 
of 1853. He reported 12 of northern men, all of whom recovered after a 
slight illness. Mr. Tuttle enjoys good health and is anotner fine specimen 
of the effect of this climate. He has led an active, out door, temperate 
life. I might name other examples to show the effect of this climate on north- 
ern men. Many such are found in New Orleans and all over the State. 

I intended to speak of the general health of Louisuina, but that 
question has been so ably and conscientiously treated by Dr. Wilkinson, that 
my own views would be comparatively insignificant. But I will offer this 
advice: Live in houses well raised above the ground, with a free circulation 
of air beneath, sleep in well aired rooms, if possible. See to it that 
your house is so situated, and your shade trees so placed, that the sun 
can get all around your premises, and under your shade trees once a day. 
Observe all necessary hygienic rules. Lead an industrious, temperate life, 
and rest assured that you will enjoy as good health in Louisiana, as in any 
other part of the Unted States. 

I am here to present the claims of Iberville to our Northern friends and 
if possible to induce many of them to become our neighbors aud fellow 
citizens. Each section of our State has its peculiar advantages and attrac- 
tions. But I do claim for this parish some advantages that no other can 
offer. 

Iberville, in ante helium days, was the second largest sugar producing 
parish in Louisiana, making over forty thousand hogsheads of sugar in one 
year. It embraces 23 miles of the Mississippi river, with its 40 miles of 
river front to the numerous magnificent plantations that line its banks on 
either side. It also takes in the greater portion of BaNOU Grosse Tete, 
portions of upper and lower Grand river, all of Bayou Maringoin, all of 
Bayou Sorel, all of Bayou Plaquemine, besides various other Bayous and 
Lakes all of which are navigable at all seasons of the year. 



59 

The Bayou Plaquemine has been made famous by the Poet Longfellow. 
It was just above the town of Plaquemine 

"Where through the Golden Coast, and groves of orange and 

citron" 
"Sweeps with majestic curve the river away to the eastward." 

That Evangeline rowed by Canadian boatmen left the great river on her 
way to the Acadian settlement on Bayou Teche in her sad and unsuccessful 
search for her lover Gabriel. 

"They, too, swerved from their course; and, entering the Bayou 

of Plaquemine, 
Soon were lost in a maze of sluggish and devious waters, 
Which, like a network of steel, extended in every direction. 
Over their heads the towering ajid tenebrous boughs of the 

Cypress 
Met in a dusky arch." 

Longfellow here gives a faithful description, but fails to mention the 
rapid current in this bayou then an outlet of the Mississippi, which at certain 
seasons of high water, would draw from the river immense quantities of 
drift wood, which, lodging in diflferent streams, completely obstructed navi- 
gation therein. In order to prevent further damage in this direction, and 
protect these iuterior lands from overflow, a huge earthen Dyke, was, many 
years ago, built across this bayou near its junction with the river, thus 
effectually separating the Mississippi River from its former outlet, the 
Bayou Plaquemine. 

The old bed of this bayou, now filled with slack water, affords a safe 
harbor for the thousands of logs required by the mills along its banks. 
And when we consider that this bayou leads into that vast network of slug- 
gish streams that extend in every direction thorough the timber region of 
western and southwestern Louisiana, and that an almost unlimited supply 
of timber can be floated through these water ways into the still water of 
Bayou Plaquemine, it must be conceded that we have here one of the most 
favorable situations for wood-working mills to be found in this or any other 
country. 

Plaquemine Cypress Lumber is becoming more and more known and 
the demand for it is increasing rapidly. 

Plaquemine Cypress Shingles are the best sawed shingles made. Our 
mills are now making over 500,000 per day. More than any other town 
in the world, and could find ready sale for as many more. 

I am surprised that other mills have not been built here to meet the 
rapidly increasing demand for Plaquemine Cypress Lumber and Shingles. 

Besides our wealth of cypress, we have in great abundance on our 
water ways and vicinity, other woods of great value, suitable for the manu- 
facture of wagons, furniture, wood pulp, wooden bowls and cooperage of 
every description. And also woods of beautiful grain, both hard and soft, 
suitable for ornamental work in buildings, or railroad palace cars. Among 
these woods are to be found oak, ash, cotton wood, gum, live oak, &c. 
In high water season this timber can be floated from the stump, and at 
other times can be hauled by oxen or steam capstans, the short distances to 
deep water. 



GO 

Besides the advantages to wood working mills on Bayou Plaqnemine, of 
having an unlimited supply of timberfloated within reach of their log chains. 
And having needed machineiy and supplies from the great West landed by 
boat at their doors. The facilities for shipping from this point to all sections 
by rail or boat, and out to sea by ocean vessels, are advantages of great 
importance. 

When we consider these favorable conditions and remember that 
manufacturing concerns are exempt from taxation in Louisiana, we are led 
to wonder that more men of enterprise and capital have not engaged in the 
development of these great resources, and that the banks of Bayou Plaque- 
mine are not lined with wood working mills and factories of every 
discription. 

The City of Plaquemine has doubled its population within the last 
eight years. It is no longer a town, but a city of 4000 iuhabitar.ts, and is 
ambitious to become a manufacturing centre, and the second City in Lou- 
isiana. The situation and resources are here, men of capital and enterprise 
alone, can bring them out. The oflBcers of the Texas Pacific Koad, with an 
eye to the situation, are now taking steps to build a branch road along the 
Bayou Plaquemine, to encourage new enterprises, now under way and 
projected. 

The agricultural resources of Iberville Parish are unexcelled. Large 
Sugar Plantations, on some of our Bayous, were partially abandoned after 
the overflow of 1884. Some of these have been rented out, to small farmers, 
who have been doing remarkably well. 

On Bayou Grosse Tete, one farmer raised from each acre, 70 Bbls. 
onions, netting him $1.50 per bbl, harvested a crop of pea vines in Aug., 
dug 35 bbls. potatoes Nov. 2nd., and planted again in onions Dec. 1st. All in 
one year; another netted $90 per acre for irish potatoes, raised 100 Bbls. 
sweet potatoes, that sold in Ciucinnatti at $3.00, net results over $300 per 
acre. 

Another raised $90 worth of potatoes, and 500 lbs cotton per acre, on 
same land, both crops in one year. I might go on with like examples. 
But these are enough. 

Further back on Bayou Sorel, Grand River, and other streams the 
lands are exceedingly rich; I have known a yield of 6000 lbs. of Sugar and 
100 gals molases, per acr* on Grand River. 

I once inquired of an old friend on Bayou Sorrel, about land I then 
owned near where he lived. He was sure it was fine land, he said he once saw 
what he supposed to be piles of stumps, all over the field, but on closer 
inspection, found them to be piles of sweet potatoes. — This was doubtles 
an exaggeration. But I have raised them weighing 8 lbs — others have 
seen them weighing 12 lbs. It is common now to find Irish potatoes weigh- 
ing from 1 to 1 J lbs. 

I would particularly recommend to home seekers that portion of Iber- 
\-ille Parish, situated on the line of the Texas and Pacific Railroad between 
Bayous Grosse Tete and Maringoin. That section was partially overflowed 
in 1884. But is now well protected, bj^ a district levee system, that offers a 
reasonable sense of security. Large tracts of these, lands, formerly Sugar 
Plantations, can be purchased at $10 to $25 per acre, with houses and other 
improve n J euts. Five hundred families could find homes here, when they 
would havo the advantage of good society, schools, ami churches. Aud 



61 

if preferable could settle in colonies, on these large places. Mr I. F. Davis, 
Rosedale P. O. La., who has lived here for many years, will cheerfully 
answer, letters of inquiry in regard to this region. Iberville needs, and is 
anxious for an influx of Northern immigration. Her people will give a warm 
welcome, and fair treatment, to all good citizens who come to settle among 
them no matter what their political or religious convictions may be. 

Many have been deterred from settling on these rich river lands by fears 
of over-flows. I am not willing to advise farmers to settle on our low lands 
on Grand river and Bayou Sorrel. Many are living in that section who find 
it so easy to make a living at floating timber, gathering moss or catching fish 
that they do not think of making a garden. Cattle here thrive during the 
entire year without any care, except an occasional salting. This would be 
the greatest farming section on earth, if entirely free from inundation. 
These fears will undoubtedly soon be removed. 

The interests of our great Railroad lines, and our increasing population, 
are such that we must be protected from inundation. 

The General Government is now spending some of its surplus millions 
in correcting the irregularities of our great river, and will no doubt, ere 
long, establish permanent embankments to protect these lands from such 
floods as have sometimes in the past poured down upon us from Northern 
States. 

Then indeed we may hope for and expect an inundation, not of water, 
but of northern immigration, pouring down upon us, covering our vacant 
lands, not with ruin, but smiling fields dotted here and there with happy 
homes. 

We hope for such an overflow and the sooner it comes the better for 
Louisiana. 

The next speaker was 

Hon. J. E. Ransdell 

of Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish La., representing Mr. D. L. Mor- 
gan formerly of Wales, Great Britain, who spoke as follows: 

Ladies and Gentlemen: — It was a great surprise to me when about 46 
hours ago I was told by our local Immigration Association, that I bad been 
selected to speak at this Convention. The gentleman who had been selected 
to speak here, was unable to be present, and that duty devolves upon me as 
Secretary of our local Immigration Association. 

I have had very little time to prepare statistics and I must ask you to 
excuse the eflbrt, I shall not attempt to make any speech, but will give you 
a few facts and figures relative to that section of the country. 

I speak especially of East Carroll, but what I say applies equally to 
Madison, Tensas and Concordia parishes. 

East Carroll, the extreme northeast parish of Louisiana, lies between 
parallels 32° and 33® of latitude, and meridians 14 and 15 of longitude 
west from Washington. It contains 256,000 acres of land, and its popula- 
tion at the census of 1880 was 12,147. 

There are about 56,000 acres of land in cultivation at this time, and of 
the remaining 200,000, at least 175,000 acres are suitable for cultivation. 
Prior to the late war a much larger acreage was cultivated, and the average 



62 

cotton crop of that period was about 80,000 bales per annum. The largest 
crop of recent years was in 1879, when the parish yielded 38,160 bales, be- 
in^ a percentage of 95-100 of a bale per acre. The biorgest average yield 
that yeiir in any other parish of the State, -was in Tensas and Madison, 
where the yield was 83-luO of a bale per acre. The yield has not been 
quite as large since 1879, as the seasons have not been so favorable, but 
there has not been very material difference in yield, and the average per 
acre in East Carroll, as compared with other parishes, has remained in ab6ut 
the same pi oporliou. Hence it will be seen that East Carroll is facile prin- 
ceps among her sisters as a cotton producer. Indeed I do not hesitate to 
say that, she is easily chief among the cotton growing lands of the world in 
proportion to her acreage. 

Bnt cotton is not the only crop that this parish raises. Many planters 
raise all their corn, and there is no excuse for any planter buying corn, as 
the yield is from thirty to sixty bushels per acre without fertilizers. (Ap- 
plause.) 

The hay industry is growing, and frequent shipments are made to 
Vicl?sl)nrg and other places. Bermuda gi ass grows in abundance, without 
any cultivation, the land producing two crops every year, and sometimes 
thiee, and this hay, made with a small expense, is considered as fine as 
timothy. In a few years hay making will be a large and profitable industry. 

No' soil in the world grows finer Irish potatoes, and they can be shipped 
long before the Northern or "Western crop is ready for the maiket. Little 
attention has been paid to tins industry in East Carroll, but in our sister 
parish of Madison several planters have experimented with much success, 
and in 18y7 Mr. F. L. Maxwell, of Mounds Station, Ma<lison parish, I^a., 
nettf-d over $3000 on his Irish potato crop, and then made half a bale of 
cotton per acre on the same land. (Applause.) 

Sweet pota,toes do equally as well. All kinds of fruit and garden vege- 
tables grow in the greatest luxuriance, and a careful gardener can have 
luscious vegetables every day in the year. 

Very little attention is paid to stock raising, but those who have 
attempted it have succeded remarkably well.. Catile feed on the winter 
grass and switch cane in our forests during the cold months and pass the 
winter -without being housed or fed. Fine horses, mules, sheep and hogs 
are raised without much attention or expense. I know a negro near Lake 
Providence who has three fine large mules and two horses that he raised 
himse'f, and they are as beautiful in shape and as strong as those raised 
in Tennessee and Kentucky. 

I sold him 80 acres of land in the spring of 1883 for $160 cash, and $900 
on timo payable annually. There was not an acre under cultivation, he has 
clearc d it, built a house on in, gets $500 a year rent for a portion of it, 
paid the notes as they feU due, and to-day is sole owner of that land. 

Should any one doubt what I have said, and wish to know the facts of 
which I speak, they can see the man himself if they will come up to Lake 
Providence — Jake Ware is his name. 

Now if a common ignorant negro can do so much, what cannot one of 
of our energetic, intelligent, industrious northern farmers do. (Applause). 
Another negro in our pai'ish has not bought a pound of meat this year 
and hAfl fort^ bogs in bis pa«ture ai this time, (A{}pl&uae*) 



63 

So little attention has been paid to stock or neat cattle that it is hard 
to say what would be the result of energetic, scientific efforts in that way, 
but there is every reason to belinve that stock aud cattle raising could be 
made as successful as iu any portion of the United States. 

But a very large part of the wealth of East Carroll lies in her virgin 
forests of cypress, oak, ash, gum, pecan, black locust, persimmon, and 
other valuable woods. Prior to the war .there were 90,000 acres of the 
parish in cultivation, so this would leave 150,000 acres that have never felt 
the woodman's ax, nor heard the whistle of a saw mill. King Cotton has 
held cur people in absolute sway, but King Lumber will one day dispute 
his rule, if I am not badly rbistaken. (Applause and Cheers.) The 
lumbers mentioned are too well known for me to dilate upon their 
value, and in considering them it must be bone in mind that after the 
timbers are cleared away, every foot of soil is suitable for cultivation except 
an occasional watery spot, that would soon surrender to tie engineering 
and inventive skill of some plucky Yankee owner. (Applause.) East 
Carroll is well supplied with water courses, and although we have no rail- 
road, one is projected from Vidalia to Bowie, Arkansas. Its entire 
eastern boundary, a distance of some sixty miles — is the Father of Waters, 
the mighty Mississippi, and on its western boundry is Bayou Macon, a 
stream navigable for small boats part of the year. Several tine lakes and 
three or four large bayous adorn its surface. Lake Providence, a straem of 
water eight miles long, and from 400 yards to one-half mile wide, is as 
beautiful a sheet of water as any State of the Union can boast. (Applause.) 

What has been said conveys an idea of the geography and products 

of said parish. Now bear in mind that this favored region, the cotton 
centre of the world, has less than one-fifth of its area in cultivation, and 
all the remainder is for sale at rates lo suit the pocket of everyone — at rates 
Tarying fron $1 to $50 per acre, according to locaUty and character of im- 
provements. East Carroll needs Northern pluck, energy and money to 
develop her vast resources, and will extend the right hand of fellowship 
and brotherly love to all who seek homes among us. (Applause.) The 
limits of this paper forbid further remarks, but I cannot clofce wit lout s^ay- 
ing that our statis'ics on the three questions of health, of churches, and of 
schools compare favorably with any portion of Louisiana or the South." 
(Heartily and Prolonged Applause.) 

The next address was by 

Hon. Jno. Dymond 

of Plaquemines Parish, formerly of New York, N. T., who spoke as follows: 

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: — I have been notified that I 
would be expected to deliver a short address upon this interesting occasion, 
therefore I will make a few remarks which may be pertinent to the subject 
— and will gladly do everything in my power to assist the grand cause for 
which this Convention was summoned. 

Louisiana is ready to welcome honest men from all parts of the Union, 
and no better evidence of the hospitality of the people, or desirability as a 
place of living than the fact of you who have settled here, coming together 
and saying that you hke the land you live in, and f-ball be glad to see friends 
come here from all quarters of the globe. (Applause.) 



,64 

I was brought up in Ohio, lived in New York for over 20 years, and have 
lived here most of the time for 22 years and during the last eleven years 
have been a citizen of this State. All of my children were born in New 
York, but have been here the entire eleven years excepting trips of a few 
days duration. Perhaps in this long while, in no othet State has any one 
family enjoyed such perfect health. (Applause.) 

We are here to-day to speak of what we know, regarding Louisiana and 
for the purpose of telling our friends in those less favored countries than 
this, that they may know the benefits that are ours so they too, may come 
and make their homes with us. This subject of Immigration is one in which 
we are all interested, and as I believe one of the most common errors Northern 
and Western people have concerning our State is, that it is not a very healthy 
State in which to live, I shall give my testimony on that subject. From 
persoual experience of eleven years, I have never been sick, nor have my 
children. They are all strong and healthy. One of them, a Creole by birth 
here in Louisiana is the brightest and smartest of the lot. (Applause.) 

We cannot say whether it is due to the fact of having been born in Lou- 
isiana or not (Laughter and Applause.) 

As regards the reception extended, all are heartily welcomed. Noi"- 
therners coming here have been surprised at the warm reception given them. 
Settlers from other States who came here to live, are now holding out their 
hands and are inviting newcomers from every other State in the Union to also 
share with them the advantages offered in Louisiana. (Applause.) 

The time has come when the people appreciating as they do the won- 
derful fertility of this soil, begin to realize that the development of these 
lauds, cannot be done without additional population. Our population is at 
present I believe about 1,000,000, perhaps slightly more, but the agricultural 
pursuits will support two or three millions as well as one. 

The Western States have all filled up rapidly owing to the inducements 
held forth for both agricultural and manufacturing interests. 

This State offers as many advantages for industries of all kinds as does 
any State in the Union, and therefore I say as a private citizen and as an 
officer of this Immigration Association, that every endeavor should be used 
to induce immigrants to come here. The people stand ready to share with 
those of other States the great advantages Louisiana possesses, and stand 
ready to give them a hearty welcome, and we are willing to divide, what we 
have with those who come, beliving that we all shall be the richer for doing 
so, in the end. (Applause.) 

In regard to climate no Northern City at this hour is any cooler. The 
bricks and mortar get heated, and the air naturally becomes so stiffiing hot 
as to be almost unendurable. They have no cooHng breeze such as we have 
from the Gulf. (Applause.) 

Sun strokes, a disease from which we suffer very little here, is very 
prevalent in North ern*Ci ties, where it is often attended with fatal results and 
I believe our statistics prove that our warm season is quite as healthful as 
our cold weather. We certainly have one of the most healthful States in the 
Union as is clearly demonstrated by the condition of the Doctors residing 
in Plaquemines. With a population of 12,000 persons, there are but thi-ee 
or four Physicians practicing, and they can scarcely make a living indepen- 
dent of their farming interest, owing to the healthfulness of the climate, 
and I do not know of more conclusive proof than that. (Applause.) 



66 

I believe that I have about exhausted the topic, and will close by saj^- 
ing that I had a hearty welcome from the beginning, have experienced it 
during all these years, and can say to my friends from all parts of the 
Union, "come here, and you shall be equally welcomed." (Cheers and Ap- 
plause.) 

The next address was by 

Maj. D. J. Wedge, 
of Clinton, East Feliciana Parish, La., formerly of Denmark, New York, 
who spoke as follows: 

"Ladies and Gentlemen: — I did not know how much good there was in 
the State until I came here to-day. Now when Col. Moorman first addressed 
me a letter asking my opinion as to the advisability of calling this Northern 
Convention, I answered rather shortly that there was no North or South 
and that I did not think it well to hold such a meeting, but now I see he 
was correct in his views. 

I came to Louisiana in 1858, and settled in East PeHciana, and I have 
been there ever since, and I have had experience enough to know of what 
I'm speaking, when I say Louisiana is without doubt one of the most 
healthy States in the Union, arid for that matter one of the healthiest 
sections in the world. (Applause.) Now we are here for the purpose of 
teUing all about Louisiana, and I don't know but what I'm a mighty poor 
one to tell the wonderful possibihties stored up there in my Parish, East 
Feliciana. (Applause). Now gentlemen we have superior advantages. It 
is said that you can take a man and model him to your own liking, as some 
one said yesterday but there is one thing you cannot do — you can never 
make a thrifty, energetic man out of an idle one. (Laughter and Ap- 
plause-) You can take a first class Northern man and you can make a first 
class Southern man out of him, and you can take a first class Southern 
man and you can make a first class Northern man. I hold that this coun- 
try is the best in the world for one thing above all others and that is health. 
(Applause.) The reason this Convention will accomplish much good, will 
be because it will do away with the belief that Louisiana is unhealthy. 
(Applause.) Up North they think we have burning hot weather, that no 
work can be done during the summer months. Only a short while ago I 
was sitting in an ofiice in St. Paul, Minn., and I never saw such weather in 
the world, it was so hot that I could scarcely draw my breath, I complain- 
ed of the heat and some one said "where are you from?" I answered, "from 
Louisiana," "from the South ; you don't mean to say that you live in 
Louisiana, and then complain of our weather?" Well my friends, "I said 
I have lived in East Feliciana Parish for very nearly thirty years, and this 
is the hottest day I have ever experienced in all that time." (Cheers and 
Applause.) The cHmate is probably unequaled. The average temper- 
ature in summer being 81 ° and 55 ° in winter. I don't know of any 
place on the globe where there are so many old people as here in Louisi- 
ana. They don't die down here they just blow away. (Laughter and Ap- 
plause.) (A voice in the audience.) "They just dry up and blow away." 
Yes sir, they just dry up and blow away, they don't go through putrefaca- 
tion. (Applause.) 

Here in this country we dont have any excessive rains, ours fall through- 
out the entire year. Our soil is rich and fertile; we raise sugar cane> 



66 

rice, cotton, corn, and other products, with little expense and abundant 
yields. One man raised four crops in one year on the same piece of ground; 
first he plantf^d it in Irish potatoes, than iu corn, a second yield of corn, 
and las ly with cow-peas. (Applause and Cheers ) Sufficient has been said 
of stock farming to prove beyond a doubt, Ihut Louisiana offers unparallel- 
ed advautages to the scientific stockman. No matter where settleis locate 
whether in North Lnuisiaua, West Louisiana, Eastern or Southern all alike 
presents almost everything that a man in any occupation couM desire. (Ap- 
plause.) Excepting Doctors as Mr. Dymond said they don't seem to get 
along Well, there's nothing for them to do. (Laughter and Applause) I 
believe that in a very little while there will be no more large Plaiitations, 
but will all be divided up in to small farms and we will have a thrifty popu' 
lation. You will let me State one thing more, in the addresses of welcome 
delivered yesterday by our Chief-Justice, Dr. Palmer and the other distin- 
guished gentlemen, they extended welcomes to all. Louisiai)a wants men 
of intellect culture, and industry; brains alone will stand forever, and 
hasten this fair land to its higher destiny. (Applause.) 

Louisiana, as well as any State in the Union will proudly claim a man 
born on no matter what soil, who can lift up his eyes to heaven and say he 
will he perfectly true to his country and do his duty, and hold to his opi- 
nions rightly formed. (Applause.) 

I can stand on the chores of Lake Superior and say "I thank God this 
is my country." I can stand among the everglades of Florida and say "I thank 
God this is my country" I can stand on the Ctiliforuia coast whose chores 
are laved by the waters of the broad Pacific Ocean, and say "I thank God 
this is my country," — and any native or adopted citizen of the United 
States, can come here to Louisiana stand on her soil, look over her fair lands 
and say "I thank God that this is my country." (Great Applause.) 

The next address was by 

Mr. Will. H. Tunnard, 

of Natchitoches, formerly of New Jersey, in place of Mr. W. J. Arnett 
formerly from Morley, Mich., who read as follows: 

Ladies and Gentlemen : 

This parish of Natchitoches is one of the richest and most productive 
in Centrjil Louisiana. Most of its lands are above overflow. It is composed 
of alluvial hill, and pine lauds. Its products are cotton, corn, cane, stock- 
raising, grasses, grain, vegetables, fruits, such as fig, pomegranate, peach, 
pe«r, plum, strawberry, dewberry, blackberry and other varieties. 
Timber in this parish consists of oak, hickory, ash, beech, maple, dog- 
wood, gum, pine, willow, cottun-wood, elm, hickory, pecan, locust, magnolia, 
cypress, walnut and other varieties. Our pine forests are simply magni- 
ficent. Its alluvian soils are bevond computation or descriptiDU. They are of 
all colors and great fertility. Th<^ uplands are usually of a sandy nature 
but fertile, particularly for fruit raising. This has been demonstrated by 
the fact that a large number of farmers are now living independent, having 
raised their own "hog and hominy" within their own prtcin's. 

Schools are abundant, and of every denomination. They include the 
State Normal; the Convent of Divine Providence; and numerous private 
and several public schools. 

The water supply in the parish is abundant. Gushing springs in the 
pine hiUs; cisterns in the valleys, besides valuable mineral springs in great 



67 

variety. Fish are abwudant in various streams and bayous, consisting of perch, 
trout, cat, gaspergoo, bniralo, pike and any variety of otber small tish. 
The price of laud depends in price on its location and ranges from $2.50 to 
$25 per acre. Our climate is salubrious; freefrom epidemics and storms, and, as 
a geueral rule, healthy where projter precautions are taken agaiiibt inter- 
mittent and billious fevers. The temperature is usually mild and seldom 
reaches a high figure. Religion includes Catholic, Jewish, Baptist, Meth(jdist 
and Episcopalians. Society is as good as elsewere found. Cane Eiver is free 
from ovtrflow. No levees; no taxation in this respect. 

It is a country for an in(histrious farmer, and he can make a splendid 
living here by his industry. (Applause.) 

To show what our Northern visitors think of Natchitoches Parish, I ap- 
pend the following letter, which speaks for itself: 

MoKLEY, Mich., May 12, 1888. 
CoL. A. E. Leihee, Natchitoches, La. 

I left Michigan on March 19, 1888, for the South, and landed in the city 
of Natchitoches one week later. When I left Michigan tbeie was plenty of 
snow and ice, and when I arrived in Natchitoclies I found things altogether 
different. There was plenty of grass for stock, the fruit trees had already 
bloomed, and garden vegetables of all kinds were growing and flowers all 
ready to bloom, and, if I remember right, some had bloomed. 

■ Larlies, why stay North and burn $50 worth of wood to keep a few flow- 
ers from freezing when you can come South and have them bloom nine months 
in the year and have them out-doors, and then you can have your ( arly 
vegetables all through April. Just think of it; and,, let me tell you, I ate 
some as fine dewberries as I ever ate in my life the last week in April, and 
you people that were in the North were shivering around the fire. I think 
fruit of most every kind will grow here in abundai ce. There is soil to be 
found adapted to most every thing, and excellent soil, too, and the climate, 
so far as I have experienced it, is very nice. It did not affect me disagree- 
ably so far. I think, if anything, it has benefitted me, as I have gained 
sevend pounds in weight: and in regard to the reception I received from the 
people, I must say that it was belter than I expected. I find them pleasant and 
hospitable in every way. There is a vaiietyof openings, plenty fi'r all 
classes; plenty of fine farming lands, both improved and unimproved, to be 
had cheap, and plenty of limber of all kinds; fine chance for stock raising 
as you need to feed for so short a time during the year that the expense is 
small compared to where you feed six months in the year. There is open- 
ing for a cotton factory, oil mill, furniture factory, grist mill, banks, hotels, 
photographer, and others, too numerous to mention. 

Respectfully. 

W. J. ARNETT. 

Also I append the following extract from a letter which gives the reader 
a few ideas of the country in and around Natchitoches: 

New Lothrop, Mich, May 21, 1888. 

Our next move was for the Red River country; in Northwest Louisiana. 
We took the Texas and Pacific train for Natchitoches, and pa-std for mi'es 
through sugar plantations, with here and there a field of rice or corn. 
Gradually the color of the soil began to change from black to brownish red, 
and the crops from cane and rice to cotton and corn. As one advances to 
the northwest the land seems higher and is slightly rolling, which seemed to 



be the case as far as we went all through this Red River country. On the 
roadsides, in old fields and open woods, the ground is perfectly carpeted with 
white clover from five to six inches high, affording the finest pasturage in 
the world for stock and bees. 

One thing peculiar to this Red River country, and different from any 
other section of Louisiana that I visited, is, that the land seems to lose none 
of its fertihty from its increased elevation, making in its favor three of the 
most important counts in the selection of homes for the people, to-wit: 
greater healthfulness, good drainage and retained fertility. 

Our next line of march was from Natchitoches over into Winn parish, 
in search of the stately pine for which this parish is noted and which is so 
pleasing to the eyes of lumbermen. Our course lay over the Cane river at 
Natchitoches, the banks of which are forty feet high; thence across the is- 
land formed by the Cane and Red rivers, through as fine a grazing country 
as ever a ranch-man's eyes feasted upon, until we reached the St. Maurice 
ferry. A stalwart son of Africa waited at St. Maurice with a flat-boat, 
which we drove on to, and he landed us on the other side of the big Red. 

Our course went over the red lands for several miles, when we struck 
the pine hills. We finally left the cut-out road and took a track cut 
through the woods just wide enough to admit the passage of wagons. We 
traveled on for miles and miles without seeing a house or clearing, through 
splendid forests of pine and other timber, till at last we came to a cosy 
little home on top of one of those pine ridges, whei*e reigned peace, plenty 
and contentment, and where we were treated to our fill of the. best the land 
could afford: As fine bacon as man ever ate, fattened to perfection in the 
woods; syrup of our host's own make, that has no superior; rice of his 
own growing, most deliciousj corn cakes so nicely browned and sweet, and 
butter that would rival "choice Illinois" creamery, with nice white honey 
just that day gathered from a tree in the woods. Surely, what more could 
one wish for? 

After taking our bearing and getting a starting point, with my host 
for a guide, we struck out through the piney woods to view some of Uncle 
Sam's domains. After traversing several sections we made a selection of a 
modest tract and turned our faces once more towards Natchitoches, well 
satisfied that Louisiana is to be one of the grandest States in the Union. 

I cannot close this long drawn out letter without saying that I have 
traveled, more or less, in over half of the States in the Union, and that I 
never met with a more cordial welcome than has been offered me by all 
classes in Louisiana. 

Very resnectfully yours, 

ALFRED GILLET. 

MoRLEY, Macosta Co., Mich. 

1 found the climate of Natchitoches parish much better than I expec- 
ted — not near as hot, and the nights very cool and pleasant, and I consider 
it, from all appearances, to be a healthy country. There is no danger from 
overflow. I saw good farming lands even in the pine hill country. The 
valley lands are in a state of nature, and those cultivated are as rich as I 
ever saw in an^' St ate in the Union. Such as 1 have seen cleared and in culti- 
vation could not be bought in Michigan for $75 per acre; here they can be 
had from $.5 to $12 per acre. The reason why the country has not, in my 
opinion, been settled long since by Northern people, is the political talk up 



69 

North indulged in for a pui'pose by a class of people for their own personal 
ends, which has lead many to believe that a Northern man would not be 
welcome down South. This is a great mistake, for I and others who are 
with me, have been treated as hospitably and kindly as we could be by any 
people I was ever among. I believe this all so much that I have determined 
to buy a farm and settle among these people. This is the home for the 
poor Michigan farmer, instead of digging in the snow. There is good tim- 
ber of all descriptions, including pine. [Signed] 

GEOKGE BRADY. 

We give the foregoing letters to show our Northern and Western 
friends, the cordiality with which we have already received their people 
who have visited us and we can assure them that if they will come to 
Natchitoches, and the Cane river country, to inspect our soil and products, 
that they will experience the same hearty welcome at the hands of our 
citizens. (Great applause.) 

The next address was by 

Hon. J. H. Keyser, 

of Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La., formerly of Pennsylvania, who read as 
follows : 

"Ml President, Ladies and Gentlemen: — Bossier Parish has a population 
of about 17,000 with plenty of room for as many more. It is bounded 
on the North by the State of Arkansas, on the East by Webster Parish, on 
the West by Caddo and on the South by Red River Parish, two railroads 
pass through the parish, one from Vicksburg to Shreveport the other 
from the Arkansas line to Shrevej)ort. It is well watered and has a large 
body of land as rich and fertile as any in the State, there are large tracts 
of upland, uncultivated that could be made as productive as lands of a like 
character anywhere and is the best poor man's country in my knowledge; 
a laborer can work three days in six and livd well. The lands of the 
parish are well adapted to all kinds of grain and fruits, and the climate 
and general health equal that of any place I have been. I traveled years 
ago through portions of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa and Michigan, and 
spent my early life in Pennsylvania, and have been living since 1870 in 
Bossier Parish, La., and taking every thing into consideration, I belive a 
man can live with as much comfort and enjoyment, in Louisiana as in any 
other State of the Union. The people are kind, generous and hospitable, 
and rarely intermeddle with the political or religious opinions of any one. 
The great need of the State, is immigrants to fill up her waste places that 
only need proper culture, to produce in abimdance. 

And the State and its capabilities only need to be made known gener- 
ally to attract immigration, and the time is not far distant when 
Louisiana will be recognized as among the first States of the Union. 

In the last few years Iron Ore has been found in abundance in the 
northern portion of Bossier Parish which will certainly be utilized in the 
near future, and labor and capital will be needed, and all of every nation- 
ality and every creed are cordially invited to lend a helping hand; we have 
use for all the brain, muscle and cash we can get. (Applause .) 



70 

The next address was by 

Mr. G. W. Mason 

of Covington, St. Tammany, La., formerly of Oregon Illinois, who read as 

follows: 

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: — I wish to add my testimony in 
favor of Immigration to the State of Louisiana for this reason I ^m as j'ou 
very well know a northern man by birth and residence up toa very short time 
ago. In the mean time I have traveled over a large portion of the South 
and West and have been in many States for the purpose of finding a climate 
suitable for lung and chest troubles. I have been to all places that I could 
hear of that presented a prospect of benefit, and wnen I came to investigate 
it there was always some fatal drawback to every plan until I struck in my 
tramp the State of Louisiana. I saw or thought I saw immediately after 
entering this State a possible chance of finding a place of relief for the 
class of people for whoi-e benefit, I was in search. I first ent( red Louij-iana 
in the Morthwtst after traveling there for some time I became convinced that 
portion of the State would not do for me. I than turned ray attention to 
the more Southern portion. Passing down the Great Jackson Route as it 
is called I stopped at the various stations on the way; looked them over care- 
fully but did not find anything that quite filled the bill for me though ad- 
vertised largely through the North as being the place. I started for South- 
western La., coming down T heard of Covington St. Tammany Parish and 
being so short a distance from New Orleans I concluded to make that a 
visit especially as I could go up by steamer at onJy 50 cts. round trip. I 
did not expect to find a climate or water of any better quality than I 
had already seen. I had become discouraged by frequent disappointments 
(I had at that time spent nearly six years in looking over the country) when 
I arrived in Covington T commenced investigMting at once I soon found 
the water wos medicinal and in quantity, and that there was different 
qualities to different springs. 

Three miles from jCovington are the well-known Abita springs, to 
which thousands resort every summer. In the town is the equally cele- 
brated Roche's well. A mile above are three fine sulphur Si^rings and 
two mineral wells on the sugar farm of Mr. A. Thomson, the rivers 
Tchefuncta and Bogue Falia are supplied by springs of perfectly pure 
soft water, and they are found in large numbers along the entire fronts of 
these rivers. At depths of ten, thirty and fifty feet are veins of water 
frequently mineral in their nature. Evei-ywhere under the soil of this 
country are veins of artesian ^vater at depths of from 70 to 110 feet. 
This water has been analyzed and found to be remarkably pure and of the 
best quality. Between these different veins are beds of pure clay so 
tenacious tlaat there is no possibility of any surface contamination or any 
mixture of the diliei-ent waters. Open wells are not used, but iron pipes 
of one and a half inch diameter are driven down to the desired depth, at 
an expense of from $25 to $50. One can obtain a beautiful flowing stream 
on any portion of their grounds. The waters of the Tchefuncta and Bogue 
Falia are pure, soft and good for every purpose; in steam boilers they 
leave no deposit and make no scales. 

I examined their graveyard and found a plot of about 300 feet square 
and that was not quite two-thirds fuU, the^^ told me it had been there for 
over sixty years and all for miles around had used that burial place. 



71 

Well sir that was something to think over, a state of actual health that 
I had never found before. There are several conditions which combine to 
make this the healthiest spot in this country; the ground is high and dry, 
no swamps or marshes exist There is nothing to produce malaria and it 
is unknown. The long leaf pine covers the country, and under its lofty 
crowns there is no undergrowth to impede the free circulation of the air. 
The resinous leaves impregnate the atmosiDhere with their odor, purifying 
and making it grateful to the lungs; the water is pure and protected from 
all danger of surface contamination; above all, it is free from the dampness 
of the Gulf coast. 

The following statements are supported by the certificates of 
responsible parties ; they cover a period of over twenty-six years, which is 
certainly long enough to furnish a sufficient test. 

Typhoid Fever — Since 1860 there has been but one death from typhoid 
fever in Covington; this case was undoubtedly contracted elsewhere, and 
the disease did not spread. 

Pneumonia — One death. This was the case of a colored man who 
had been badly wounded and was much exposed during the coldest 
weather we have ever known at this point. 

Small-pox — Three imported cases; no deaths and the disease did not 
spread. 

Scarlet fever — ^Two imported cases; no deaths and the disease did not 
spread. 

Malarial fever — No cases. 
Diphtheria — No cases. 
Cholera — No cases. 

Yellow fever — Two cases imported in 1867. The disease did not 
spread, although many were in contact with the patients, and the funerals 
were largely attended. In 1878 thousands fled to Covington, and though 
the town had daily communication with New Orleans and no quarantine, 
not a case of fever of any kind occured. No resident of the town was 
ever known to suffer from any disease of the kidneys or bladder, and the 
waters have cured many such cases. The docters of New Orleans have 
such a high opinion of the curative effects of the air of Covington upon 
diseases of the throat and lungs, that numbers of patients are sent here 
annually, and many wonderful cures have been effected. We do not 
pretend that all consumptives can be cured by this atmosphere, but 
we do assert that the disease in its early stages is almost invariably ar- 
rested, and in many extreme cases the life of the patient has been pro- 
longed for years. Fevers are X'are and never serious in their nature. 
There have been no deaths from dysentery, and our waters are re- 
garded as an infallible cure for this disease. I also visited southwestern 
Louisiana, I determined to see that as well. So I started for "that promis- 
ed lan.l," that land of prairies so much written of and talked of through 
the northwest. I found it to be a beautiful country possessing many in- 
viting features for the home seeker, but I returned and settled in St. 
Tammany Parish, as it appeared to me. it was the land and chme I had 
been seeking foi", for many years. I have resided there ever since and 
found my fondest anticipations and expectations fullyrealized. (Applause.) 
The climate is as fine as that of California, the water much better, and 
plenty of Government land can be entered as homesteads. For stock rais- 



ing the country has no superior; cattle and sh'eep that were not fed one 
day last winter, were fat enough for market by the first of March. The soil 
is particularly adajDted to the cultivation of the strawberries and LeConte 
pear. FloAvers bloom every month in the year, and green peas, Irish potatoes, 
beets, onions, radishes, cabbages, cauliflowers, parsnips, turnips and other 
vegetables are planted In the autumn and mature in winter. The ther- 
mometer rarely raises to 90 in summer and seldom falls to 32 in winter. 
Sunstrokes are unknown, and persons from all portions of the United 
States and Europe work in their fields during the entire summer, without 
any injury to their health. The latitude is the same as Jacksonville, Fla. 
There are only a few days in winter that the most delicate persons cannot 
pass in the open air. By February the trees are in bud, and many in full 
leaf; fruit trees and flowers are in bloom, the farmers are planting and 
strawberries are ripe. All kinds of fruits and vegetables ripen early 
enough to command high prices in the Northern markets. The soil con- 
sists of a sandy loam underlaid with a claj'' that is impervious to moisture 
and which retains all manures near the surface. A farmer from the 
rich prairies of the West or the alluvial soil of the river bottoms, would 
form a very poor opinion of this land from its appearance; yet many 
persons have deserted- the river bottoms of Pearl and Bogue Chitto for 
these pine lands, and it would be very difficult to induce them to return 
to their river farms. In these days of improved agricultural methods, 
all farmers admit the necessity of fertilizing even the best lands. With 
the moderate use of fertilizer this pine land produces very fine results. The 
average cost of fertilizing an acre of land will be about $4 per annum the 
first year and gradually a decrease as the soil improves. One horae can 
pull a plow that would require two in alluvial soil, and thus these lands 
can be cultivated cheaph^ All kinds ofvegetables are raised in abundance: 
melons, grapes, figs, peaches, apples, pears, pomegranates, blackberries, 
pecans, raspberi'ies and strawberries can be grown to perfection. There 
are several persons who are engaged in the cultivation of the grape with 
very profitable results. They have already commenced to manufacture 
wine and find a ready sale for all they produce. Corn, cotton, rice, sugar, 
potatoes, oats and hay are renumerative crops. This is the coiantry for 
the poor man whose means will not allow him to spend a small fortune 
in purchasing land. 

I would say to all and everyone who visit this country as I have done, 
examine for yourselves and don't let land sharks convince you against 
your better judgement, and before you purchase anywhere come over and 
take a look at St. Tammany Parish and Covington in particular; drink of 
her cool water coming from mother earth, (far below any possible contam- 
ination from surface waters) in a steady flow with no pumji or windmill to 
vex or bother you, but forever flowing freely from artesian wells through 
iron pipes. We say to all come and drink our healthful, Hfe giving waters 
and you will find an open hospitality, and a hearty welcome from the 
people of St. Tammany. (Applause). 

The next address was by 

Hon. a. Dimmtck 
of Opelousas, St. Landry Parish, La., formerly of Onawa Iowa, who ^i • ' 
a9 follows: 



73 

Ladies and Gentlemen : — I have been selected to represent the largest 
Parish in the State, that of St. Landry. It was one time considered the 
"Empire Parish" of the State, 

It has latel}^ been divided oft', and our little sister Parish, Acadia has 
been taken from it. We boast of having the finest court-house in the State; 
we boast of excellent soil, as equal in fertility as Iowa lands, the State from 
Avhich I came We can raise corn and cotton, rice and hay. Our hay crops 
is considered the best in the State, and is certainly the finest I have seen. 

This year our land will yield 3 tons to the acre, and I am satisfied of 
it, because I have a large interest in it myself. A yield of three tons to 
the acre is using up land pretty Well. (Applause.) 

Now Ladies and Gentlemen I propose to just say that I will close as I 
have nothing more of interest to say, and bid you good bye. (Applause.) 

The next address was by 

Mr. James W. Wilson 

of Koseland Colony, Tangipahoa Parish, La., of Chicago, HI., Manager 
Farm, Field and Stockman, who read as follows: 

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen of the Convention: — Unfortu- 
nately I am not a citizen of your adopted State, but of the great City of 
Chicago. I first set foot on your soil last November when I spent a week 
riding among the tall pines of Tangipahoa Parish, inspecting her herds 
of Cattle and Sheep, her truck and fruit farms, interviewing her citizens as 
to the nature an 1 value of her productions and sampling her grand 
atmosphere and pure water. 

I was so well pleased that I cannot keep away from your State, since 
that time. This is my fifth visit. I have now been with you two weeks in 
what they tell me is the hottest time of the year, and some say the hottest 
weather you have had for ten years . I am not used to exposure to the sun, 
my duties at Chicago confining me closely to my office. I came right 
from office work down here and with the exception of yesterday and two 
Sundays have been out all day, each day riding horseback or driv- 
ing, traversing hundreds of miles of your territory, yet I have not 
suffered so much from the effects of heat and the weather as I did 
the two previous weeks at Chicago. Your Summer heat is continuous 
yet there is something about the atmosphere which enables us to endure it 
better. It is not prostrating, so demoralizing to the system as the same 
high temperature at the North would be. You rarely have a case of sun- 
stroke here, while with a temperature of 96 ° in Chicago, we have had as 
many as thirty or forty cases, many of which resulted in death. 

Previous to coming here we shared the common ignorance in 
regard to your State. Louisiana we thought was about half to two-thirds 
covered with swamps full of alligators and venomous reptiles, hot-beds 
of fevers and malaria which contaminated all portions of the State. We 
thought- it was impossible for a NortheriMuan to live here without first be- 
coming acclimated, and that in order to become acclimated he must pass 
through a siege of dangerous fever. Since we began publishing articles 
about the South, in the Farm, Field and Stockman I have received niaiiv 
letters containing solemn warnings whatever else you do keep awaj^ froiii 
1 jouisiana. Even when starting on this trip, some of my friends earnestlv 
warned me to be careful and not catch swamp fever or "yellow jack." 



74 

This Convention of hearty looking citizens of northern extraction, 
providing its proceedings are published and widely circulated, will do 
much to dispel tLis ipnorance. It was indeed a happy thought of its 
projectors and will benefit your State more than anything that has yet 
been done for the cause of immigration. (Applause.) 

A week's sojourn in your climate and the information collected satis- 
fied me that it was healthy, and not only healthy but so far as 
Tangipahoa Parish is concerned at least is one of the healthiest climtes 
in the world. In fact I believe she is destined to be a great sanitarium; 
among her tall pitch pines, not only is found relief but pei'manent cure 
for all that class of diseases caused by a cold and changeable climate, 
such as catarrh, asthma, weak lungs, rheumatism, etc. My information 
upon this question is not based upon theory or surmise but upon the actual 
experience both of myself and friends, and facts which have come under 
my own observation. 

For example, my old friend Dr. Benjamin of Hutchinson, Minn., 
came down with me in February so badly crippled with rheumatism that 
it was with the greatest difficulty he could walk the length of a block. He 
had not been in this climate two days before his rheumatism left him, 
and he walked around with me through the "piney woods" as smart and 
chippery as could be expected of a man weighing nearly 250 lbs. He is 
coming to Louisiana to make it his home as soon as circumstances will 
permit. 

My friend Mr. Way, a prominent citizen of Annawan, HI., came 
into our office last January to ask our advice about going South. He 
stated that he had the asthma so bad that for ten years in the winter time 
he had not slept in a horizontal position in bed. We advised him to go to 
the piney woods of Louisiana and try the experiment. He did so, and 
his experience as communicated to me in a letter after his return home in 
April, was remarkable. He stated that when he arrived in Tangipahoa, 
one could hear him breathe a hundred feet away. On the second night 
after arriving he slept soundly in a horizontal position, and from that day 
the relief and improvement was rapid and complete, so that, although he 
returned home too early, he has not since been afflicted. 

My friend Mr Wm. Helmer, a banker of Mechanicsville, Iowa, came 
here in November completely used up with nervous prostration, so bad 
indeed that it was with the greatest difficulty he could control his muscles 
but when attempting to walk he would often reel like a drunken man. A 
winter spent among your pines brought him such great relief that he 
was enabled to return home and resume his business. 

My friend Mr. Densmore from Michigan, came to Tangipahoa also in 
November When he left home he was so weak through the effects of lung 
troubles that he had to be carried to the train. After he had been here a 
short time I met him up in Tangipahoa Parish, he was then so much im- 
proved that he was able to walk o^r three miles with me without recting. 
He spent the winter here and now firmly believes that had he not come to 
this climate he would have been under the sod. He has now sold out 
his business and will soon be with you permanently. These are facts, 
gentlemen, and in view of such facts it is no wonder we sometimes be- 
come enthusiastic over your glorious atmosphere. I can give you plenty 
more but for fear you take me for a patent medicine alnianac, I will giv« 
you xxxj own exj>erience and then change the subject, 



76 

"WTien I came down here last November, I weighed on tlie seal© np at 
Milan whei-e the train stops for dinner just 145 pounds. On my return 
on the same scale I weighed 155 pounds, making a gain of ten pounds in 
one week, while my wife in the same time gained eleven pounds. Think 
of it, gentlemen, of the extent of avoirdupois had we remained in this 
climate continuously until this time, thirty-six weeks, gaining ten 
pounds per week. (Applause,) 

We heard great stories up at Chicago about the productions of 
Louisiana and it is unnecessary to say that pi'evious to investigation we 
were incredulous when stories reached us about some of your small fruit 
farms up in Tangipahoa making a profit of $000 per acre, on strawberries 
and of picking 8 quarts from a single vine, also of your truck farmers mak- 
ing marvelous profits out of cucumbers, radishes, etc. We thought a lot of 
California boomers had struck your country or that you took us Chicago- 
ans for a company of Marines. We elevated our eye brows, and laid all 
such stories upon the shelf with that California yarn about the parsnip 
which grew so large that when its grower piiiled it, he found a John China- 
man clinging to the root. And when my friend Welch came to our office 
with what we supposed to be a yarn about a grape vine growing 43 feet 
by actual measurement and bearing over 1,000 bunches of grapes in a 
single year, we thought it a kind of a snake story. We thought it had 
probably grown about 13 feet and the other 30 was due to a vivid stretch 
of imagination, but when we came down here and investigated and 
found these things true, we felt like the old minister in the story. 

This old minister as all good Christian people should, was in the ha- 
bit of holding evening service regularly in his family, of prayer, 
singing and reading a lesson from the scriptures. In order that his family 
might look over the lesson it was his custom to announce each evening 
where the next lesson would be. As the story goes this minister had some 
orthodox ministers, boys, which as common rumor has it, are sometimes 
disposed to be mischievous; these boys were no exception to the rule. 
One day when they were looking over the lesson it came into their little 
mischievous heads to play a practical joke upon the old gentleman whose 
eye sight was not very good, so they got some paste such as is used for 
pasting pictures into scrap books and pasted some of the leaves of the 
Bible where the lesson was, together. AVhen evening came the old gentle- 
man began to read the 2nd chapter of Genesis, about the creation of man. 
"And Ciod made man of the dust of the gi-ound," then he came to the end 
of the page and in turning over turned the pasted leaves, and began reading 
the account of the making of the ark, "And Grod made man of the dust of the 
ground, 42 cubits high and pitched him within and without with pitch." 
He then knit his brows, took oil his glasses and wiped them and read it 
over again. Laying down the book he then said, "boys I never read this 
before but as it is in the Bible you must believe it." So it has come to be 
with lis whatever stories we hear about the productions of Louisiana, we 
have learned not to be incredulous. (Applause.) 

Our programme says I am elected to talk about Eoseland Colony, aa 
that is an enterprise of a somewhat personal character, I will not weary 
you with the details of it, sufficient to say, that on account of articles about 
this State, which we published in The Farm, Field and stockman, some of 
our readers who desired to remove to a more congenial climate, requested 
ns to t&ke the initiative in organizing a colony to locate in Tangipahoa 



76 

Parish. Being thus urged, we decided to do so and have purchased land for 

this pui'pose on the Illinois Central Railroad just south of Areola. The 
land is now surveyed in 5, 10 and 20 acre tracts and mapped. A saw mill 
is being erected and before next spring probably 100 families will be lo- 
cated thereon; about 80 have already bargained for land, and made a 
partial payment thereon, a saw mill is now being built and will soon be in 
operation to utilize the timber and furnish lumber for building. The 
colony is co-operative in its character and only temperate and industrious 
men of good moral character are pei'mitted to join it. An ample fund is 
provided for a thoroughly equipped school house and school, good roads 
etc. It is designed to ship produce on the co-operative plan to regularly 
appointed agents at the large cities and avoid dishonest commission mer- 
chants and secure car load rates. 

With this brief statement and thanks for your attention I will make 
way for the next on the programme. (Great Applause.) 

The next address was by 

Hon. S. L. Cart, 

for Jennings' Colony, of Jennings', Calcasieu parish, formerly of Manchester, 
Iowa, who spoke as follows: 

"Ladies and Gentlemen : — As introduction to the few remarks I shall 
make, I would say that I was born in Western New York; that the lands 
there require to be fei'tilized before it would raise white beans, and lands 
there were selling from $75 to $100 per acre. I respect the land of my 
birth, but have moi-e respect for the man who had coura.a^e to emigrate from 
that country. (Applause.) I went to Illinois, then to Iowa where I lived 
over thirty years, and the reason that I and so many others here left there, 
is because of the severity of the climate. This is a climatic convention; a 
severe climate makes mortgages, and mortgages makes a world of trouble. 

When I settled in Calcasieu parish, five years since, I was told thei*e 
was not a mortgage on file in the parish. I hope the yankees will not 
break the record. (Great applause and laughter. ) I would not say a 
word against my State, but in one county, (Howard,) there are 37,000 
mortgages on file, and I have the highest respect for the Iowa man who 
m"rtg:i<>ed his cook-stove that he might take the whole family to the circus. 
(Laughter and api>lanse.) 

If you will pardon me I will read what few remarks I have to make of 
Calcasieu parish: 

"Only one year ago Hon. C. L. Clute, commissioner for Iowa to the 
World's Exposition at New Orleans, wrote to the Manchester Democrat that 
the thermometer, June 7, 1885, stood at 128° in the shade at the Exposi- 
tion Building, with the best instruments known to the world, that it was 
impossible for man or beast to work, that mules dropped dead on your 
streets from heat as an every-day occurrence, and that clover conld not be 
grown in Louisiana as it would be burned out by excessive heat. This state- 
ment, only one y^jar since, was generally believed in the North, and not un- 
til we sent to Hon. Wm. H. Harris, Commissioner of Immigi-ation, for the 
facts, which bi'ought the temperature down to 90°-3 was the correctness of 
the statement doubted. To do away with such ignorance and set the North- 
ern head right is the object of this convention. (Applause.) 

"To make it impossible for designing men to injure the reputation of 
the fair State of Louisiana we come here to-day. Over five years I have 
watched the progress of Iowa Colony in Calcasieu parish. Many of them 



77 

are old men. Some of us were born tired and have done some hard sitting 
around in our daj'S, but to the credit of the climate be it said dwellings have 
been built, homes have been made, farms have been opened, new indnstiies 
have been established, where all was silence the hammer and saw make din 
and clatter. The grass-covered roaOs revel in dust or mud as the heavens de- 
cree. One hundred mowers and self-binding harvesters, many hay i akes, 
gatherers, loaders, steam threshers, hay jTesses and all modern machinery 
are in use. 1000 cars of bright clean, sweet native prairie hay will be shi})ped 
on the Southern Pacitic Railroad to market this year, Three years ago this 
most valuable product of the prairiu was burned up. This season there will 
be saved to pay for sweat and honest labor $100,000 on hay alone upon only 
100 miles of the Southern Pacific Railroad in Southwestern Louisiaiui, more 
than $1< (0,000 in rice for an increase in two years, besides a very largt 
amount in other directions. At Jennings, on the 26th, six cars of most ex- 
cellent hay were loaded for your mark^ t, via New Orleans, the best market 
a Yankee ever struck, not because you are easily imposed upon by tin 
watches, wooden nutmegs, bass-wood cucumber seeds and such things, but 
because you run to one thiug, cotton, sugar, rice, tobacco. The Yankee diver^ 
sities and fills your market with 1000 things you must have to make YiUt 
worth living. I spoke of honest labor. Labor is so elevating in its natur* 
that the laborers of this century will be the rulers of the next. (Cheers and 
applause.) The working Israelite slew his Egypt iaii master. Last year k 
few came to see the country in summer: they generally liked the climate and 
invested in lands. (Applause.) 

'•You are welcome. Since Governor, McEnery on a special day appoint- 
ed, tendered us the hospitality of the State we have not doubted our welcome, 
and allow me to say in behalf of these new settlers that yon native Southern 
people are welcome to stay; We want you, we can't spare you: we think 
we have found the veritable garden of Eden. My partner, K. Freeman, a 
surveyor, in digging around for corner posts sajs he has struck some of the 
roots of the old apple tree. He may be wrong about that, for I think the 
forbidden fruit was a green persimmon the way it puckered up our lives and 
characters. (Laughter and Applause.) Cain found his wife in the land of 
Nod: we find ours in this laud of the gods. 

"This season many more came and a larger percent than usual invested 
and the movement has been constantly increasing from the start 

"The only clouds that hang about our horizon are of man's creation. 
^Nature is prodigal.' Even when we cnt the valuable grass clean to th« 
ground the good mother earth sends up a better and a larger yield each 
year and wefindmore corn, more cotton, more potatoes, more grain per acr* 
each year. Yet with all this generosity we find each year eternal vigilance is 
the price of liberty and no excellence without labor. 

"This hay is a Louisiana product and by high authority is better for 
horses and mules than tame hay or timothy and clover; use our native hay 
with more grain and have a cheaper and better ration and the money goei 
to make us rich instead of the North. This people are loyal; they are loyal 
to your parish, loyal to your State and loyal to the government I close 
with this sentiment. There is no anarchy in this immigration. (Great ap- 
pliiuse. ) 

This closed the exercises of the regular programme, and 

PBESIDENT KKAPP 

fclten arose and spoke as follows: 

"Ladies and Gentlemen : — Listening to th« literary exercises of the leg- 



78 

nhr pvo^'i amrae, as the gentlemen have been si'caking, particularly I he- 
last lew gentleiiu ii, of the wontltrfnl fidvantiiges of Louisiana, it recalled 
to my ujind an old Persian Mvth which a man of 1« re had told me in my 
boyliood (lays. It will take but a few minutes for recital iaid it is so appro- 
priate to the occasi-n that I would like to tell it. 

It seisms that abont tbe complitiou of the creation cf the woild, the 
All wise being called together the great Host^ of the Heavens to behold 
his work. There was not sufficient material on hand, and he said to the 
angels "Haste! Haste, and biiug me more material." An angel flew 
swiftly oft" on the wings of light till he came to the field of Elysium and 
much against the protest gathered the tin* st and the best in tlie fields, and 
hastening back dropped it into the vacant place. The great Cre itor f^aid 
looking upon it "It is well." In the process of the ages, tbe location of 
that spot of beauty was lost, and the inhabitants have sought it v^veiy 
where, without success, but I think from wliat I have heard here at this 
convention, at last "Eureka!" the place has been discovered, and if we 
could only roll back the curtain between the visible and invisible, we should 
hear the All wise say "Enter thou into the "Promised Land," it is yours," 
take it and eat of the products, and tell your friends of the land, but one 
thing you must do, cultivate it, it is all yours, and that is the interpretH- 
tion of it. (Loud applause.) 

After the resolutions were read and adopted, and which will be found in 
the front of this book. 

PROF. KNAPP, 

in closing the convention, delivered the following address of thanks and 
congratulations. 

''I deeply appreciate the honor conferred in calling me to be your pre- 
siding ofiicer. It is no common privilege to be called upon to take part in 
such a meeting, and I have often enjoyed that privilege since living in the 
State of Louisiana. "On this momentous occasion the duties of presiding 
officer have been lessened, by your courtesy, your promptness and your at- 
tention to business, and I congratulate you. 

"It has been pleasant to me, most agreeable so far as I am con- 
cerned. I wish personally to extend thanks to every one here, especially to 
those who are not here as members, but are nevertheless our fellow-citizens, 
and have attended these deliberations. 

"We have tried to divest ourselves of the remembrance that we were 
former residents of Northern and Western States. While no man here 
would be willing to cast a refiection on the grand old country that gave us 
birth, we came to this land as American citizens, and we feel that this 
is as much our country as yours of the manor born. (Applause.) 

"We have taken up our residence here, and we have accepted your ex- 
pressions of hospitality and good- will, in full faith. I have not experienced 
a single act of discourtesy from even the humblest citizen on this soih 
(Cheers.) 

"I have everywhere expressed my political opinions with as much free- 
dom as in the great Northwest, and bear testimony that at no time have 
they interfered with the good will and the friendship and the love of my fel- 
low citizens of the South. (Che< rs.) 

"Which I love most, the great and grand and good people of Louisi- 
ana, or the great and grand and good people of the Northwest, I cannot 
say. We are soldiers and captains and generals marching to the music of 
the new era. We welcome all good people from every part of the world to- 



on 
up 



79 

enjoy the libprfies which are as fnll aiicT free ns the citizenship of Illinois 
New Yoik, and if I did not believe it I wuiilJ be the first man to rise 
ai:d say" it. (Applause.) 

"I do not wish to extend my remarks. I wish to give my thanks to 
the convention, to the ].r< ps of the Srate, that has done us RU("h good ser- 
\ice, to the oflScers of the Imniii^iation Association for their kindness, and 
to close gentlemen, with mutual congratulations, upon every hand. 
(^Hearty and prolonged ap[tlause.) 

End of Partial Phoceedings. 



Partial List of Delegrates. 

Giving their former State and present residence in Louisiana. 

Michigan. — Kasson Freeman, Jennings. Fred Merritt, Crowley. F. C. Cal- 
kins, Lake CLarles. John W. .Stokar, Jeauerette. 

-Minnesota. — F. B. Cutting, Jeuuings . L. 8. Cutting, Ben. A. Taylor, Jen- 
ijing.s. L. C. Cuthon, Hiimmond. Geo. H. Morse, Jennings. F. F. Morse, 

C. E. Payson, Amite Citj. D. M. Tegaron, Jennings. J. A. Williams, 
Crowley. W. W. Garig, Baton Rouge. A. II. Burkdoll, Crowley. E. M. 
Gallup, Hammond. Mrs. E. W. Gallup, Hammond. A. H. Beed, Lake 
Charles. F. M. Welch, Geo. Whitworth, S. A. Pickett, Crowley. Edw. 
Haine, Clinton. 

Dakota.— J, M. Gould, Hammond R. Mullenger, Houma, Scott B. Halstead, 
Amite City. W. H. Buhner, Welsh. Fied. Arnold, Hammond. E. Gould, 
Hammond, D. M. Seaman, Kentwood. Dr. P. Lieber, Jennings. C. Hen- 
duckhim, P. E. Sandayez, Lydia. John Connolly. 

Wisconsin. — N. A. Shroop, Mississippi City. A. B. Landphere, Hammond. 
Joel Clark, Hammond. A. S. Pinney, Jennings. John L. Smith, Spring- 
field. 

Kansas. — Jas. Close, Hammond. W. H. Booth, Hammond. Wm. Armstions, 
New Orleans. Henry Shamlaugh, Crowley. D. A. Clayton, Washington. 
L. E. Robinson, Welsh. B. Booth, Hammond. W. H. Booth, Hammond. 
Edna Booth, Hammond. M. L. Bradley, Hammond. S. W. Illead, Lake 
Charles. R. F. Brenting, Jr., New Orleans. L. A. Walker, New Orleans. 
Mrs. M. L. Bradley, Walter Bradley, Hammond. S. W. Meade, Lake 
Charles. R. F. Bunting, Jr. 

Nebraska. — Mrs. R. F. Jackson, Hammond. W. R. Larcom, Hammond. W. 

D. Larcom, Hammond. W. D. Larcom. Hammond. H. H. Brunsteter, 
Hammond. A. W. Patterson, Crowley. Mrs. J. M. Patterson, Crowley. 
I. J. Lack, Crowley. 

Missouri. — Judge J, M. Howell, Lafourche. H, S. Wilson, Thiboileaux. 
Geo. Brown, (howley. C. W. Knight, St. Bernard. Malcolm Mc.P^alone, 
St. Francis. Wm. F. Roche, Plaquemi)ie. 

Ikunois. — D. M. Guir, Jennings. L V. Cooley, Franklin. J. B. Cooley, 
Ponchatoula. C. Termysen, New Orleans. Chas. S. Johnson, Ham- 
mond. Mrs. C. S. Johnson, Hammond. Mrs. D. G. Gamble, Hammond. 
M. J. Strain, Hammond. Lena Strain, Hammond. L. Glasebrook, 
Hammond. Andrew Mott, Hammond. Mrs. D. Mott. Hammond. Jno. 
L. Mott, Hanuiiond. (Trace Mott, Hammo d. R. W. Smith, Hammond. 



80 

ItuNois — P. N. Davis, Ponchatonla. O. B. Irish, Hammond. F. B. Sannrlers' 
Hammond. Winslow Howard, Hammond. R F. Patterson,. Baton 
llouge. A. A. Robert, "Welcome. Chas. Griffin, Haaimond. A. C, 
Spaulding, Hammond. Miss M. J. Patter!>on, Btiton Rouge. 
Jno. A. \Ve]sh,*Tick Fall. G. W. Patterson, Lake Charks. Geo. W 
Massey, Kentwuod, Josiah Hurty, Haiidsbora. J. A. Kinder, Lake Char- 
les. Mrs. A. E. Aubtin, Handsbora. H. McCullOch, Kentwood, J. H 
Gary, Hammond. G. W. Overton, Hammond. Willie Durkec, Hammond. 
G. O. McCuUey, Hammond. \Vm. H. Wilson, Hammond. G. W. Mabon, 
Covington. Geo. W. Massey, Kentwood. A. Wilson, Elizabeth iSt. Clair, 
Hammond. 

Iowa. — Geo. B. Spencer, Jennings. Wlbur P. Spencer. Jennings. S. Decatur 
Luciia, Delhi. W. J. Daughenbaugb, Jennings. Mrs. W. J. Daughen- 
baugh, Jennings. !s. S. Patten, New'Orleans. S. Cooper, Jennings, O. B. 
Jenkins, Jennings. M. C. Jenkins, Jennings. Mrs. S. Coops, Jennings. 
Josiah Hulbert, Jennings. Addie Gardner, Jennings. Mrs. VV. Daniels, 
Jennings. J. Norton, Jennings. A. B. Goodrich, Crowley. Jno. W. Car- 
ver, Welsh. Mrs. G. W. Reiuage, Jennings. Jennie Allen, Jennings. A. 
Dimmick, Opelonsas. Jas. Maund, Jennings. E. M. Powers, Welsh. O. 
Fulton, Welsh. E. P. Crane, Welsh. G. D. Moore, Welsh, N. PrLntice, 
Welsh. N. D. Kelly, Welsh. L. L. Morse, Jennings. Mrs. L. L. Morse, 
Jenings. J. D. Ellsworth, Kentwood. E. D. Martin, Baklwm. P. E. 
Olmsted, Hammond. Chas. Bacon, Hammond. Mre. J. M. Bactn, Ham- 
mond. Archy Bacon, Hammond. G. S. Norton, Crowley. F. D. June, 
Hammond. Ralph June, Hammond. E. E. June, Hammond. A. Thorn- 
Bon, Lake Charles. S, A. Knapp, Lrke Charles. P. H. Philbrick, Lake 
Charles. C. D. Otis, Shell Beach. N. S, Craig, A. B. McConnell, 
Welsh. Chas. L. Cooper, Jennings. S. D. Carpenter, Plaquemine. Mr8> 
R. W. Carpenter, Plaquemine, W. H. Nicholson, Crowley. E. J. Coffin, 
Jennings. W. M. Young, Hammond. S. R. Shear, Jennings. Peter 
Newcomer, Jennings. J. B. Magruder, Baton Rouge. Chas. McCoukt-y, 
Jennings, L. Grant, Hammond. G. W. Robinson, Hammond. J. W. 
Gleason, Plaquemine. Mrs. V. C. Moore, Hammond. C. S. Babcock, 
Hammond. F. D. June, Hammond, Wm. M. Taylor, Hammond. Wm. 
Gregg, St. Beinard. R. D. Manard, Independence. Wm. Caiy, Jen- 
nings. S. D. Cary, Jennings. W. F. Daniels, Jeni-ings. R D. Mandro, 
Charles Bacon, Miss M. J. Patterson, Baton Rouge. 

Nkw York. — D. J. Wedge, Clinton. V. M. Purdy, Lake Providenee. P. 
Butler, Richland. Jas. B. Wands, Areola, La. W. H. Rngan, Thibodeanx. 
S. J. Lacy, Washington. Henry Garden, Jennings. W. C. Welsh, New 
Iberia. Steven Tillotson, Hammond. C. E. Wagner, Kentwood. Rufus 
Smith, Kentwood. B. F. Morris, Clinton. A. B. Pa^ue, Clinton, G- W 
A<ker, Kentwood R. W. Kinckerbockber, New Orleans. Jno. J, Casbey, 
Ponchatoula. Henry Whorten, Baton Rouge. F. G. Burbank, St. 
Mai tinsville. J. W. Miller, New Orleans. M. C. Cole, New Orleans. J. 
C. Wilkins, New Iberia. W. G. Hall, Kentwood. Geo. W. Rapen, New 
Orleans, V. W. Jones. 

New Jeusey. — Jno. B. Marsh, St. Mary. J. M. Williams, Plaquemine. 

PENNSYLVANur. — Jas. A. Stuart, Lake Charles. Wm. Lousa, New Iberia. H. 
F" Lawler, St. Bernard. Wm. Soard^ New Iberia. 

Kentucky. — Jas. Janes, Thibobeaux. R H. Garrett, New Orleans. Jno. Mc- 
Connick, Lake Charles. L. I. Borgus, Hammond. F. H. Feahan, Amite 
City. E. S. Cobb, Hammond, R. Corbin, Hammond. Jno. O. Corbin and 



81 

Kentucky. — M. B. Corbin, Hammond. Geo. Moorman, New Orleans. 
North Caiwlina. — E. H. Davis, Lake Providence. 

Ohio.— G. W. Renage, Jennings. J. R. Russell, Washington. H. Gelbert, 
Jennings. Chas. Imderstrodt, Jennings. Jno. F. White, New Iberia. 
Watson Jones, Jefferson. Henry A. Cbilds, New Iberia. Jennings H. 
White, New Iberia. Jno. Robinson, Crowley. C. C. Roberts, Abbville. 
M. H. Lewis, Geo. C. Neelis, Hammond. Jno. H. Roberts, Jennings. 
' C. H. Genslinger, New Orleans. G. G. Walker, Centerville. Junius 
White. 
Indiana. — Phil. McGuire, Lake Providence . L. Spalding Welsh, J. S . Wil- 
liams, Lake Charles. E. D. Tomlinson, Jennings. J. A. Brookshier, Ab- 
beville. J. S. Hawkins, New Orleans. W. R. Williamson, Lake 
Charles. J. C. Galey, Baton Rouge. May Holder, Baton Rouge. F. 
Holder, Baton Rouge. Chas Holder, Baton Rouge. S. T. Grisamore, 
Thibodeaux, J. Q. Reynolds, New Orleans. Robt. Ridgway, New Orleans. 
Sam'l M. Todd, New Orleans. S. D. Duckworth, Amite City. Ephraim 
D. Tomlinson. 
Louisiana.— Jos. E. Randell, Lake Providence. T. P. Gruydau, Shell Beach. 
Jno. Derks, Jennings. J. E. Johnson, Poplar Grove. Rev. A. Mechaulf, 
Abbeville. E. Dechamps, Shell Beach. A. P. Pujo, Lake Charles. M. 
Holder, Baton Rouge. E. Dechamps, Jr. Shell Beach. 
Texas.— Jndson Harris, Jennings, W. F. Pbifer, Jennings. M. L. Vincent 

Welsh. Mrs. Judson Harris, Jeniiings. 
Virginia.— W. A. Johnston, Boyce, Geo. J. Ramsey, Clinton. W. W. Garland, 
Amite City. D. E. Quirk, New Orleans. V. A. Johnson, New Orleans. 
T. D. Cook, Washington. 
Massachusetts.— H, P. Goodwin, Washington. W. H. Haskell, Lake Charles. 
Rev. R. C. Hitchcock, New Orleans, L. J. Zevr. New Orleans. E. H. 
Wheeler, New Orleans. 
Maine. ^ — J. K. Small, New Orleans. 

New Hampshire.— C. E. Cate, Hammond. J. D. Wilcomb, Hammond. 
Vermont. — Jno. W. Austin, Plaquemine. 
CoNECTicuT. — L. H. Terry, New Orleans. 
Washington. — Welman Bradford, Rayne. 
M.aryland. — W. H. Drury, New Orleans. 
Mississippi.— R. W.MusgVove, Natchez. J. A. Pressac, Natchez. J. D. Malone, 

Liberty. 
Colorado.— Richard A. Pomeroy, New Iberia. Benj. Dew, Jennings. 
South Carolina. — L. L. Levy, New Orleans. 
Austria.— Max Stockner, Lake Providence. Anthony Cogozuegh, New 

Orleans. 
Ireland. — Hugh McGuire, Lake Providence. 
Wales. — Jno. L. Davis, Tangipahoa, 

London.— Edward Parker, New Orleans. T. L . Volz, Clinton. 
France. — F. Saucay, Thibodeaux. Jno. Abberdie, St. James. 
Florida. — H. H. Baker. 

Over 250 delegates failed to register their names. 



Louisiana's Climate, as a Summer and Winter Resort. 



One great attractive feature of Louisiana, is her superior climate. Louisiana's ex- 
cellence is shown from the records kept at New Orleans in the following table of tem- 
perature, compared with well known places all over the world. 



AVERAGE MEAN TEMPERATURE 





WINTER 


spring 


summer 


autumn 


annual 


New Orleans, La. 


56.0 


69.0 


81.9 


69.9 


69.4 


Galveston, Tex. 


.55.5 


69.9 


83.5 


71.4 


70.2 


Charleston, S. C. 


51.2 


65.0 


81.0 


66.8 


66.2 


Shrevepo'rt, La. 


48.4 


66.0 


81.7 


65.2 


65.3 


Jacksonville, Fla. 


.56.8 


69.1 


81.4 


69.9 


69.5 


Delta, La. 


4».6 


66.3 


80.7 


66.1 


65.8 


Montgomery, Ala. 


.50.4 


65.3 


80.6 


65.5 


65.6 


ViccsBURG, Miss 


50.4 


66. 


80.8 


65.5 


65.7 


Baton Rouge, La, 


53.8 


67.1 


80.6 


67.2 


67.2 


Augusta, Ga. 


48.8 


64.2 


80.2 


64.5 


64.7 


(Jrand Coteau, La. 


.53.2 


67.9 


80.9 


66.7 


67.2 


Mkmphis, Tenn. 


42.7 


61.3 


79.5 


60.9 


61.2 


Palestine, Tex. 


48.6 


65.5 


79.9 


67.1 


65.0 


Palermo Gal (Orovi 


He) .52.9 


64.5 


78.8 


65.6 


6.5.5 


Litle Rook, Ark. 


45.3 


62.3 


78.8 


63.1 


62.3 


Nashville, Tenn. 


41.2 


59.7 


78.5 


59.7 


59.8 


Atlanta, Ga. 


46.1 


61.3 


76.5 


62.4 


61.7 


Lynchburg, Va. 


.38.8 


.56.1 


76.3 


57.7 


57.6 


Washington, D. 0, 


35.0 


53.0 


75.4 


56.6 


55.0 


Palermo, Sicily. 


53.0 


59.3 


74.7 


68.0 


63.5 


Florence, Italy. 


44.3 


56.3 


74.0 


60.0 


58.9 


Nice, France. 


47.8 


56.3 


72.3 


61.6 


59.5 


Rome, Italy. 


48.9 


57.6 


72.2 


64.0 


60.7 


Chicago, III. 


27.6 


46.0 


69.8 


.51.7 


49.0 


St Paul, Minn. 


17.0 


43.9 


69.5 


45.7 


44.0 


Denver, Col- 


29.9 


47.4 


69.8 


49.6 


49.3 


Los. Angelos, Cal. 


56.6 


57.9 


68.5 


63.8 


61.4 


Buffalo, N. Y. 


26.4 


41.9 


67.9 


50.2 


46.4 


Paris, France. 


38.4 


.50.4 


64.5 


52.3 


51.5 


City of Mexico 


.53.6 


63.4 


65.2 


60.1 


60.6 


New Orleans, La 


. 56.0 


69.0 


81.9 


69.9 


69.4 



ANNUAL AVERAG 



precipitation 



56..50 
52.22 
58;92 
53.75 
57.06 
59.25 
53.87 
60.. 54 
61.62 
48.79 
58.91 
54.96 
42.78 

55.02 
52.35 
55.66 
43.44 
44.39 



37.10 

28.82 
15.06 

38.. 50 



56..50 

From the foregoing official records it is plain that there is no section east of the Rocky mountains that 
can romiH-te with Louisiana in ciiuiate. If we have rivals, they alone exist in sections of Orepou and Cali- 
fornia. I-iiuisiana has but one climate, anil tljat well defiued, We have /hot weather but we have also the 
cool <4«lt B;eeze exteudinf; inland, reaching the extreme northern po.tion of the State which has, however 
a somewLiat higher temperature than that recorded in the southern portion during the summer. The rain- 
tall and moisture in tho atmosphere, are nearly the same, being slightly less north than south. The sum- 
mers are loug, but necessarily so for the crops that are grown. The rairfall in Louisiana is evenly distribu- 
buted throughout the year with an abst-nce of toggy days. Louisiana's comparative immunity from killing 
frosts is graphically portrayed on the small chart on the Iswer corner of the Weather .Maps. 

It must not be understood from the foregoing that Louisiana has no cold-waves, for durirg the past 
winter (my first in the south) tho temperature in this city fell to 29" above zero ; but while we escaped with 
that temperature, cau.sed by a high pressure of air that swept down below a storm having its origin in Indi- 
ana, Florida on the same lat. had a temperature lower than that recorded here. 

R. E. KEKKAM, U. S. Signal Corps; Director La. Weather Servfce. 
Frosts are very rare in southern Louisiana, and when they do occur very little damage to veget ttion re- 
sults. AU the wonderful characteristics of our superb climate, make life very enjoyable, and render this sec- 
tion one of the healthiest in the world. The average annvial rainfall is 5l) 50 inches, insuring unfailing 
rops of cereals and all the fruits, which are now rapidly enriching Louisiana. 

Water for domestic and manufacturing purposes can be had in abundance from wells from fifteen to for- 
ty feet deep, and in many places from flow ug wells obt:iined by merely driving down one to two inch 
iron pipe, from 60 to 250 feet, and at a cost o) only $25 to $100. according to depth. 

LOUISIAIVA'S ADVANTAGES 

The Italy of America for climate, grape growing and sunny skies. Largest sitgar and rice producing 
distnct in the world. Largest and most productive cotton growing area and cotton receiving depot in the 
world. Eden of America, for agriculturists and florists, they can cultivate 12 months of the year. 

TRUCK FARMERS HAVEN OF REST— Where four crops can be grown annually on the same land. 

FRUIT GROWER'S PARADISE— Producing within her borders the tempting fruits from the Tropics. 
8 well as all the hardiest fruits from the Western, Middle and Northern States. 

For information, correspond with or apply to State ImmigratioD Association, 159 
Common Street, New Orleans, La. 

GEO. MOORMAN, Presioent. H. H. BAKER, Secretri. 

ISIDORE NEWMAN Sr. Treasurer. 



HOMESTEADS! CHEAP LANDS FOR SALE. 

Louisiana Offers to Immigrants, home- 
seekers AND Capitalists. 
MILLIONS OF ACRES OF GOVERHMENT LAUDS, 

splendid for homes, farming and stock raising, with best drinking water, springs, run- 
ning streams, and superb climate; subject to homestead entry by actual settlers, at only 
nominal cost of small government fees, to wit: 

40 Acres can be entered at a cost total fees and expenses of about $18.00 

80 • • 22.00 

120 • • 25.00 

160 •• 30.00 

also Louisiana has over 5,000,000 acres of state lands. These lands are subject to entry 
as homesteads, by actual settlers free of cost, except the nominal cost of notices of appli- 
cation etc., to the amount of 160 acres. The lands are also subject to purchase in any 
quantity at prices ranging from 12}^c to 75 per acre. 

Also there are 10,000,000 of acres of private lands in Louisiana for sale, and now list- 
ed in State Immigration Office, 159 Common St., New Orleans, suited to every department 
of agriculture, fruit growing, stock raising etc., at prices ranging from 50c. to $100 per 
acre, and in tracts of from 5 to 50,000 acres. Our association has an arrangement with 
all Railroads in the State to furnish cheap transportation to all immigrants, prospectors 
and land seekers, franked by this association. 

For full particulars regarding everything above, correspond with or apply to; thk 
Officers named below of the; 

STATE IMMIGRATION ASSOCIATION, OF LOUISIANA, 

159 COMMON STREET, . NEW ORLEANS, LA. 

Organized March 5, 1888. The outcome of the greatest and most successful popular 

movement ever known in Louisiana. 
Cordial Invitation to Home Seekers, Immigrants and Capitalists, to settle in the State. 

OFFICERS. 

CoL. GEO. MOORMAN, President 

VICE-PRESIDENTS. 

Hon. JNO. DYMOND First Congressional District 

WM. B. SCHMIDT Second Congressional District 

Hon. don CAFFREY Third Congressional District 

Col. W. H. JACK Fourth Congressional District 

Hon. W. G. WYLY Fifth Congressional District 

Hon. JAS. M. THOMPSON Sixth Congressional District 

Col. H. H. BAKER Secretarv 

ISIDORE NEWMAN, Sr T Treasurer 

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 

Col. GEO, MOORMAN, Chairman. 

CLEMENT STORY, St. Bernard. ) 

Hon. JNO. DYMOND, New Orleans. }■ First Congressional District 

LUCIUS FORSYTH, Jr., Plaquemines. ) 

E SCANNELL, St. James. j 

Hon. EMILE ROST, St. Charles. V Second Congressional District 

CoL. GEO. MOORMAN, St. Tammany, ) 

Hon. JOS. BREAUX, New Iberia. j 

Prof. S. A. KNAPP, Calcasieu V Third Congressional District 

Hon. H. C. MINOR, Terrebonne. ) 

A. L. ATKINS, Bienville. i 

Hon. JOS. HENRY, Natchitoches, v Fourth Congressional District 

Hon. W. H. WISE, Caddo. ) 

Hon. W. G. WYLY, East Carroll. ) 

H. H. NAFF, Morehouse. V Fifth Congressional District 

Col. FRANK P. STUBBS, Ouachita. ) 
Hon. D, W. PIPES, East Feliciana. 

Hon. 0. J. BARROW, West Baton Rouge. V Sixth Congressional District 
Rev. R. F. PATTERSON, East Baton Rougb. 



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